No. of individual shareholders in Japan hits record high in FY 2012

Jumat, 21 Juni 2013 01:07

(TOKYO-Kyodo) The number of individual shareholders trading at five major stock exchanges in Japan hit a record high in fiscal 2012 ended in March this year, rising 0.1 percent to 45.97 million, the bourse operators said Thursday.

The figure broke the previous record of 45.92 million set in fiscal 2010, reflecting an increase in the number of newly listed firms and stock splits, according to the data compiled by the bourses including the Tokyo Stock Exchange and the Osaka Securities Exchange.

Meanwhile, the ratio of shares owned by foreign firms in terms of market value reached an all-time high of 28.0 percent, up 1.7 percentage points from the year before.

Foreign companies have been buying Japanese shares aggressively on expectations about the Bank of Japan's credit easing as well as on the country's economic recovery, they said.