June 8 (Reuters) – Japanese investors sold foreign stocks at the fastest pace in about five years in May, as caution over Middle East hostilities and concerns that a tech-driven market rally had run too far weighed on sentiment.
They sold foreign stocks of a net 2.72 trillion yen ($16.98 billion) during the month as they logged the largest net withdrawal since April 2021, data from Japan’s Ministry of Finance (MOF) showed on Monday.
The MSCI World Index, which hit a record 1,138.3 last week, is down about 2.9% so far this month, as a blowout U.S. jobs report triggered a selloff in hot AI-linked technology stocks.
Japanese investors bought a net 2.9 trillion yen worth of foreign debt securities, the most since May 2025.
The MOF data showed that trust accounts divested a net 3.38 trillion yen of foreign stocks but pumped 3.16 trillion yen into bonds in the overseas markets.
Investment trust management companies and life insurers, meanwhile, bought a net 614.6 billion yen and 77.5 billion yen worth of foreign stocks in the last month.
A separate set of data from the Bank of Japan showed that Japanese investors had bought 1.91 trillion yen worth of U.S. stocks and 826.4 billion yen of European stocks in the first four months of this year.
They had bought British and Spanish stocks of 285.5 billion yen and 80.1 billion yen in the first four months of the year.
($1 = 160.2000 yen)
(Reporting by Gaurav Dogra; Editing by Andrew Heavens)
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