Foreigners turn net sellers of Japanese stocks

Foreigners were net sellers of Japanese stocks for the first time in a month during the week ended March 8, with sentiment soured by further evidence of slowing global economic growth. Overseas investors sold a net 310.1 billion yen ($2.78 billion) worth of Japanese stocks, including cash equities and futures last week, data from Japanese stock exchanges showed.
Foreigners bought 258.7 billion yen in derivative markets, and sold 568.9 billion yen in cash markets, the data showed. Japan's major stock indexes - the Nikkei index and the Topix index - both lost about 2.7 percent each last week, marking their biggest weekly declines since the week ended Dec. 21.
Last week, the US Labour Department reported that jobs grew at their weakest pace in 1-1/2 years in February, while in Asia, China's exports declined at its worst pace in three years. This week, Japan's major stock indexes have so far risen more than 1 percent. Japanese investors bought 623.8 billion yen worth of overseas equities last week, their first weekly purchase in nine weeks, data from the Ministry of Finance showed.