Everyone's a net seller of Japanese stocks this year: analyst

TOKYO (March 23): Don’t believe Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s global fund manager survey, which shows that Japan is the second-most popular equity market, says Jonathan Allum, a strategist at SMBC Nikko Capital Markets Ltd.

A look under the hood shows a different story. Everyone from foreigners to local individuals and trust banks are net sellers of Japanese stocks this year, the London-based Allum wrote, citing Japan Exchange Group Inc. data. It suggests, he says, that “global investors are bears in bulls’ clothing.”

Allum published the report on Tuesday, a day before the benchmark Topix index tumbled to its biggest decline since Donald Trump’s victory in the US presidential election. That left the equity measure within 1% from erasing its gains for 2017.

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