Tokyo, Oct. 30 (Jiji Press)–Foreign investors turned net sellers of Japanese stocks last week for the first time in four weeks, according to data released Thursday by the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

Nonresidents’ net selling came to 89,543 million yen in the Oct. 20-24 week, against the previous week’s buying excess of 205,288 million yen, said the TSE in its weekly report covering transactions by 59 brokerage firms on the Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya exchanges.

“Foreign investors took to the back seat to see the course of a possible political scandal related to Japan Highway Public Corp.,” said Hiroaki Kuramochi, head of the global equities division at Credit Lyonnais Securities (Japan).

While hedge funds cashed in on gains, U.S. mutual funds moved to sell ahead of their annual book closings, brokers said.

Last week, the 225-issue Nikkei average tumbled 702.19 points, or 6.4 pct, to finish Friday’s session at 10,335.70. The average daily trading value on the TSE’s first section came to 1,411.1 billion yen, down from the previous week’s 1,534.2 billion yen.

After hitting a fresh 16-month high early in the week, the key market gauge registered the biggest point loss for this year on Thursday amid U.S. stocks falls and worries about a possible political turmoil in Japan.

But, despite the price drops, individuals turned net buyers for the first time in four weeks, reflecting their strong appetite for buying on dips. Their net buying totaled 257,601 million yen, against the prior week’s selling excess of 55,089 million yen.

Meanwhile, domestic financial institutions largely stayed net sellers, among them trust banks which remained net sellers for the 25th straight week, as company pension funds continued to cash out assets that are due to be returned to the government.END