Foreign investors were net buyers of Japanese stocks for the eighth straight week last week.

Nonresidents bought 300.84 billion yen more than they sold, compared with 426.53 billion yen the previous week, which was their highest net purchases since 517.03 billion yen in the second week of December 1999, according to a weekly industry report.

While domestic financial institutions and corporate investors were busy unwinding their cross-shareholdings, foreign investors have bought a net 3 trillion yen so far this year, more than offsetting their net sales for all of 2000 -- 2.36 trillion yen.