Foreign Bond Buying Run Ends, Offshore Investors Still Buy Japanese Bonds

Japanese investors were small net sellers of foreign bonds last week, according to the weekly international security flow data released by the Japanese MoF, bringing an end to a run of four consecutive weeks of net purchases.

• Japanese investors also lodged a third straight round of weekly net sales of foreign equities.
• Elsewhere, foreign investors were net buyers of Japanese bonds for a fourth straight week, net purchasing over Y1tn of Japanese paper for the fifth time in seven weeks. This could still represent an element of JGB short covering after the BoJ’s defence of its YCC settings in June but may also represent foreign investors taking advantage of FX-hedged yield pickups.
• Finally, foreign investors recorded a marginal round of net buying of Japanese equities for a third consecutive week.