Japanese investors raise foreign stock holdings for sixth week on easing trade tensions

May 2 (Reuters) - Japanese investors raised their foreign stock holdings for a sixth straight week as their sustained appetite for overseas equities was further bolstered by signs that the U.S. and China were willing to ease trade tensions.

The local investors also viewed last week’s stronger yen as an opportunity to enhance their overseas asset positions. The yen JPY= reached a seven-month high of 139.86 per dollar before partially reversing its gains.

Japanese investors allocated a net 133.8 billion yen ($920.85 million) to foreign equities last week, marking their sixth consecutive week of net purchases, according to data from Japan's Ministry of Finance.

They also acquired a net 435.2 billion yen in long-term foreign bonds.

The MSCI World Index .MIWD00000PUS climbed to a five-week high of 840.47 on Thursday, supported by progress in U.S.-China tariff negotiations and strong earnings reports from major tech firms.

Meanwhile, Japanese equities attracted a net 278.3 billion yen in foreign inflows, the smallest weekly cross-border investment in the past four weeks.

Foreign interest in Japanese bonds also cooled, with inflows into long-term Japanese bonds falling to 60 billion yen last week, down sharply from approximately 1 trillion yen in net purchases the previous week.

($1 = 145.3000 yen)

Japanese investments in stocks abroad

Foreign flows into Japanese stocks

Foreign flows into Japanese debt securities

Japanese investments in overseas debt securities