Japanese investors were big sellers of foreign assets before US election
(Reuters) – Japanese investors aggressively divested their foreign asset holdings in the week to Nov. 2 on caution ahead of the U.S. presidential election, while the recent downtrend in the yen also prompted them to lock in profits.
According to Ministry of Finance data, Japanese investors withdrew a robust 4.46 trillion yen ($29.22 billion) and 1.17 trillion yen respectively from foreign long-term bonds and equities, registering a fourth consecutive week of net sales in both segments.
Republican Donald Trump was elected U.S. president on Tuesday with unexpectedly strong support. Betting markets had favoured a Trump win before the outcome was announced, but polls said it would be a close contest.
A sharp decline in the yen so far in the fourth quarter, also prompted Japanese investors to lock in profits.
Japanese investors acquired about 2.02 trillion yen of foreign stocks and 5.11 trillion yen of long-term bonds in the September quarter as the yen rallied about 11.98% against the dollar during that period. The yen has so far shed about 6.14% this quarter, creating profit-taking opportunities abroad.
Concurrently, Japanese stocks gained about 139.4 billion yen of foreign inflows during the week in a sixth successive week of net purchases.
Foreigners, however, sold a net 42.6 billion yen of long-term Japanese bonds last week following 277.9 billion yen of net purchases a week earlier. Japanese short-term bills, meanwhile, gained 23.3 billion yen of foreign inflows.
($1 = 152.6400 yen)
