Households' financial assets fell for an eighth consecutive quarter in July-September, but the pace slowed as the stock market notched gains, a Bank of Japan survey said Thursday.

At the end of September, the balance of financial assets held by Japanese households had fallen 0.7 percent to ¥1.439 quadrillion from the previous year. That's slower than the 2.9 percent drop logged in April-June.

The slowdown was attributed to steady gains by Tokyo stocks and to household efforts to reduce spending to deal with the slump.

By asset type, household cash and deposits rose 1.5 percent to ¥790.65 trillion while shares and other equities fell 6.5 percent to ¥99.77 trillion.