Offshore Investors Bought Local Equities & Bonds Last Week

Last week offshore investors returned to both Japan equities and bonds. In the equity space, we had the first weekly inflow since mid June. Since the start of June, net inflows are close to flat for this segment. Last week's price action in Japan equities was a steady recovery from Monday's sharp slump. Offshore investors may have used that pull back to rebuild some long positions. In the bond space, we saw inflows into this space as well, more than offsetting the prior week's outflow. Still, the broader trend around these flows is close to flat since the start of June.

• Japan buying of offshore bonds was quite strong for the second straight week. As global monetary policy starts to turn, local investors may see offshore bonds more attractive, particularly on an FX hedged basis. Still, the trend back to June remains for net selling by local investors in terms of offshore bonds.
• Local investors sold overseas equities last week, but this only marginally offset the prior week's outflows into this asset segment.

Table 1: Japan Weekly Investment Flows

Source: MNI - Market News/Bloomberg