They bought a net ¥651.3 billion (US$4.53 billion) worth of Japanese stocks during the week, the highest in six weeks, marking their 12th week of buying out of the past 13, data from Japan’s finance ministry showed.

The Nikkei surged 4.55% last week, the most since September 2024, as a renewed global optimism over artificial intelligence boosted chip-related stocks such as Tokyo Electron and Advantest by 14.72% and 7.67%, respectively, and SoftBank Group, an AI investor, by 12.26%.

Foreign inflows, including last week’s net purchase in domestic equities, totaled about ¥7.46 trillion for the three months ending June 30, the largest figure for a quarter since June 2023.

Long-term Japanese bonds also saw a robust ¥1.05 billion in net foreign inflows last week.

Foreigners, however, ditched a net ¥633.9 billion in short-term bills.

Japanese investors, meanwhile, bought ¥190.6 billion worth of foreign stocks, ending their six-week-long selling streak.

They also added a net ¥182.8 billion worth of foreign long-term bills in a third successive weekly net purchase.