April 23 (Reuters) - Japanese stocks attracted significant foreign investor inflows in the week through April 18, driven by a rally in artificial intelligence‑related stocks as risk sentiment improved on hopes of a resolution to the Middle East conflict.
Foreigners bought a net 2.38 trillion yen ($14.92 billion) of Japanese stocks in the week, adding to a record 3.94 trillion yen weekly net purchase the prior week, data from Japan's Ministry of Finance showed on Thursday.
An early-stage rally in technology
stocks boosted risk appetite last week. The SoftBank Group surged 19.83%, while Advantest rallied 11.52% in the last week.
The Nikkei crossed the 60,000 level for the first time on Thursday as U.S. President Donald Trump, earlier this week, indefinitely extended the Iran ceasefire.
Foreigners, however, offloaded 298.2 billion yen worth of Japanese long-term bonds, snapping a two-week trend of net purchases. They bought short-term bills of a net 1.89 billion yen following three weeks of net sales.
In overseas equity markets, Japanese investors extended their recent buying streak into a ninth straight week as they picked up a net 338.1 billion yen of foreign stocks.
They, however, divested a net 183.3 billion yen of foreign debt securities, in their fifth weekly net sales in the past six weeks.
($1 = 159.4900 yen)
(Reporting by Gaurav Dogra; Editing by Harikrishnan Nair)
