Foreigners invested a net ¥1.08 trillion (US$6.77 billion) in Japanese stocks in the week ended May 23, a near 14% rise from ¥948.4 billion of net purchases the prior week, data from the Ministry of Finance showed on Thursday.

The tech sector attracted investments as Nvidia forecast blockbuster demand for its flagship AI chips last week.

AI investor SoftBank Group surged 17.62% last week, while chip designer Socionext rallied 12.26%.

Foreigners have so far pumped nearly ¥11.7 trillion into Japanese stocks this year, compared with roughly ¥742.1 billion of net purchase in the same period last year.

Japanese long-term bonds saw a net purchase of ¥1.35 trillion after outflows of ¥1.03 trillion in the prior week, as a bond selloff eased and higher yields attracted investors.

Foreigners, however, divested ¥2.22 trillion of short-term instruments, the most since March 28.

Elsewhere, Japanese investors withdrew a net ¥358.7 billion yen from foreign equities, marking their third weekly net sale in four.

They, however, invested a marginal 10.3 billion yen in long-term foreign bonds, extending buying to a fourth straight week.