Foreign investors bought 1.18 trillion yen ($7.7 billion) worth of Japanese shares last week. This is due to investors' hope for an increase in share repurchases and dividend payments by companies. The volume of purchases was the second largest among weekly net stock purchases in Japan after 1.5 trillion yen in 2013. In addition, Japanese individual investors also actively purchased shares worth 634 billion yen in the first week of the fiscal year. The main motivation for purchases was the confidence of foreign investors that Japanese companies can easily achieve profits with a moderate level of inflation in the country. Meanwhile, the Nikkei 225 index fell 3.4% over the week, which was the largest weekly drop since December 2022 due to profit-taking.
