Net Japanese stock purchases by nonresident investors hit an all-time high of 13.96 trillion yen in 2005, the Finance Ministry said Monday, underscoring the key role nonresidents' active buying played in last year's stock market rally.
Shares purchased by nonresidents totaled 171.76 trillion yen, with the sales coming to 157.80 trillion yen, according to current-account balance data released by the ministry.
Of the 2005 total net purchases, investors from Western Europe accounted for 6.30 trillion yen.
In 2005, the key Nikkei average on the Tokyo Stock Exchange surged more than 40 percent from the previous year due partly to expectations that the Japanese economy was about to pull out of deflation.
The previous record-high net Japanese stock purchases by nonresidents was 11.39 trillion yen, hit in 1999 amid the information technology bubble.
Net purchases of medium- and long-term foreign bonds by Japanese investors amounted to 22.11 trillion yen in 2005.
For January, nonresidents' net investment in Japanese stocks came to 1.31 trillion yen, exceeding 1 trillion yen for the seventh consecutive month, according to ministry data based on reports by designated financial institutions.