Japanese investors were the biggest sellers of foreign assets ahead of the US election By Reuters
(Reuters) – Japanese investors dumped their foreign holdings in the week to Nov. 2 in anticipation of the U.S. presidential election, with the yen’s recent decline prompting them to pare gains.
According to Finance Ministry data, Japanese investors withdrew a solid 4.46 trillion yen ($29.22 billion) and 1.17 trillion yen respectively from long-term foreign bonds and equities, registering the fourth consecutive week of net sales in both categories. .
Republican Donald Trump was elected president of the United States on Tuesday with unexpectedly strong support. Betting markets had favored Trump to win before the result was announced, but polls said it would be a close contest.
The yen’s sharpest decline so far in the fourth quarter has also prompted Japanese investors to lock in profits.
Japanese investors gained about 2.02 billion yen of foreign stocks and 5.11 billion yen of long-term bonds in the September quarter as the yen gained about 11.98% against the dollar during the period. The yen has so far shed about 6.14% this quarter, creating opportunities for overseas profits.
At the same time, Japanese stocks gained about 139.4 billion yen of foreign inflows during the week for the sixth consecutive week of net buying.
Foreigners, however, sold 42.6 billion yen of long-term Japanese bonds last week following 277.9 billion yen of net purchases last week. Japanese short-term loans, on the other hand, received 23.3 billion yen of foreign inflows.
($1 = 152.6400 yen)
