Trade negotiations boost market sentiment, Japanese investors have been buying overseas stocks for eight consecutive weeks.

With progress in U.S. trade negotiations and concerns about the impact of trade wars on the global economy easing, investor sentiment has been boosted, leading Japanese investors to buy a large amount of foreign stocks for the eighth consecutive week. Data from the Japanese Ministry of Finance shows that as of the week ending May 10th, Japanese investors net purchased 250.8 billion yen ($17.2 billion) of foreign stocks, a significant decrease from the net purchase of approximately 2.55 trillion yen the previous week. So far this year, Japanese investors have net purchased 8.2 trillion yen of foreign stocks, marking the highest record for the same period since at least 2005. In May, investors' concerns about the impact of U.S. tariffs on global economic growth have significantly eased due to ongoing trade negotiations, the trade agreement between the U.S. and the UK, and the 90-day truce on tariffs between China and the U.S. Since hitting a near 15-month low of 722.57 points on April 7th, the MSCI Global Index has surged by approximately 20.88%. The index is only 1.6% below its historical high of 887.58 points. As of the week ending May 10th, Japanese investors also net purchased 1.92 trillion yen of overseas long-term bonds, reversing the trend of net selling of 514.2 billion yen the previous week. At the same time, the Japanese stock market attracted approximately 439.0 billion yen in foreign capital, with cross-border investors net purchasing for the sixth consecutive week. Foreign investors net sold 141.1 billion yen of long-term Japanese government bonds, marking the second consecutive week of net selling, but purchased 973.9 billion yen of short-term Japanese bonds.