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Foreign investors piled into Japanese stocks last week, amid expectations of a Federal Reserve rate-hike pause and buoyed by China's recent stimulus measures.
Data from Japanese exchanges showed foreign investors purchased a net 979.35 billion yen ($6.64 billion) worth of Japanese equities during the week ended Sept. 1, their biggest weekly net buying since June 9.
They poured a net 339.32 billion yen into cash equities and about 640 billion yen into derivatives last week.
The Topix index jumped 3.7% last week and hit a fresh 33-year peak. The Nikkei also added about 3.44%, the most in a week since mid-June.
Data showed U.S. job openings dropped to the lowest level in nearly 2-1/2 years in July, bolstering expectations that the Fed will keep interest rates unchanged next month.
During the week, China stepped up measures with top banks paving the way for further cuts in lending rates, while also taking some action to relax home-purchase restrictions to try and stabilise its debt-riddled property sector.
Foreign investors have pumped about 8.59 trillion yen into Japanese shares so far this year, compared with about 2.09 trillion yen worth of net selling last year.
Meanwhile, overseas investors accumulated a net 926.6 billion yen of long-term Japanese bonds last week in contrast to about 534.1 billion yen of net selling a week ago, data from Japan's Ministry of Finance showed.
However, they withdrew about 1.71 trillion yen from short-term bonds, marking a second weekly net selling.
Japanese investors, meanwhile, poured a net 749.6 billion yen into foreign equities last week, the biggest amount in eight months.
Japanese investors also purchased overseas debt securities last week. They secured about 90.7 billion yen of long-term bonds and 210.4 billion yen of short-term securities. ($1 = 147.4500 yen)
(Reporting by Gaurav Dogra and Patturaja Murugaboopathy in Bengaluru; Editing by Janane Venkatraman)