Nissan Motor : Foreigners' selling of Japanese stocks hits highest since mid-March last week

Foreigners turned net sellers of Japanese equities last week after three straight weeks of purchases, marking their biggest net offload since mid-March on renewed concerns about rising coronavirus cases and its impact on economic recovery.

Overseas investors were net sellers of stocks worth 727.26 billion yen ($6.90 billion) in the week ended July 31, data from Japanese stock exchanges showed.

(GRAPHIC - Foreign flows into Japanese stocks: )

They sold a net 462.43 billion yen worth of shares in cash markets, and 264.83 billion yen worth of derivatives.

Japan's Nikkei index <.N225> and Topix both plummeted more than 4.5% last week, marking their steepest decline since early April, as fresh daily COVID-19 cases spiked and dampened hopes of a swift economic rebound.

Dismal earnings results from several Japanese firms also dented investor sentiment. Canon Inc , Nissan Motor Co and Mitsubishi Motors Corp all reported quarterly loss.[nL3N2EZ28M ]

Meanwhile, Japanese investors offloaded overseas equities worth a net 919.3 billion yen, marking a fourth successive week of net selling, finance ministry data showed.

(GRAPHIC - Japanese investments in stocks abroad: )

(Reporting by Gaurav Dogra, Patturaja Murugaboopathy; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu)