Foreign investors sold Japanese stocks last week at the highest scale in 18 months

According to data from the Japan Exchange Group, as of the week ending March 27, overseas investors net sold approximately 1.51 trillion yen (USD 9.5 billion) of Japanese stocks, marking the third consecutive week of selling, with the scale of the sell-off being the largest since September 2024, indicating increasing market concerns about the impact of the Iran war on the Asian economy.

Since the outbreak of the Iran conflict, the Nikkei index has underperformed the S&P 500 index by about 6 percentage points, having previously outperformed the S&P 500 index and other global stock markets in January and February