Profit-taking + Hedging during the market closure Foreign investors selling Japanese stocks.

Foreign investors were net sellers of Japanese stocks in the week ending January 4th, as they took profits and reduced risk during an unusually long market holiday. Data shows that foreign investors sold a net total of 74 billion yen (approximately 4.683 billion USD) of Japanese stocks in the week ending January 4th, compared to a net sale of approximately 562.7 billion yen the previous week. Looking at the whole year, foreign investors bought a total of 1.23 trillion yen worth of Japanese stocks in the first half of 2024, but sold approximately 4.77 trillion yen worth of Japanese stocks in the second half. The Nikkei 225 Index rose 19.22% in 2024, marking its second-best annual performance in eleven years. However, after trading resumed on Monday, the index fell by 1.15% this week as investors began to lock in profits following a recent rebound. It is worth noting that foreign investors were net buyers of nearly 227.5 billion yen of Japanese bonds in the week ending January 4th, ending three consecutive weeks of net selling. Among these, foreign investors bought 154.8 billion yen of long-term bonds and 72.7 billion yen of short-term bonds. Additionally, Japanese investors were net buyers of foreign stocks worth 325.1 billion yen in the week ending January 4th, marking the fourth consecutive week of net buying. At the same time, Japanese investors were net sellers of foreign bonds for the third consecutive week, with long-term and short-term bonds being net sold by 331.8 billion yen and 4.9 billion yen, respectively.