Nonresidents turn net sellers of Japanese securities, ¥848.4bn in the week to October 17

Nonresident investors were net sellers of Japanese securities in the week of October 11 to October 17, disposing of ¥848.4bn more than they acquired, according to the Ministry of Finance's weekly securities transactions release dated October 22. The previous week, October 4 to October 10, shows a revised net purchase of ¥5.47tn in the same table. Earlier Tokyo Brief coverage

Short-term debt drives the swing

The net sale came from short-term debt securities, where nonresidents disposed of ¥2.24tn more than they acquired. Long-term debt securities went the other way: nonresidents were net buyers of ¥1.45tn, with acquisitions of ¥5.87tn against disposals of ¥4.42tn.

Equities and investment fund shares were close to flat. Nonresident acquisitions were ¥33.21tn and disposals ¥33.28tn, a net sale of ¥66.5bn.

Residents also sold on balance

On the other side of the ledger, Japanese residents were net sellers of foreign securities by ¥190.2bn. They bought a net ¥128.3bn of foreign equities and investment fund shares, but were net sellers of ¥161.6bn of long-term debt and ¥156.9bn of short-term debt.

How to read the series

The figures come from designated major investors: banks, financial instruments firms, insurers, investment trust management companies and asset management companies named by the Finance Minister under Article 21 of the ministerial ordinance on foreign exchange reports. They are not a census of all trading. Transactions are classified by the residence of the security's issuer, not by its currency of denomination. A plus sign means net acquisition and a minus sign net disposition, and totals may not add because of rounding. Figures marked with an asterisk in the release are revised.

The release gives no explanation for the reversal, so the data alone do not say why short-term debt was sold.