Japan fund foreign asset holdings rise in April

TOKYO, May 15 (Reuters) - Japanese investment trust holdings
of foreign assets rose in April, recovering the drop made the
previous month, as global stock markets stabilised on the
growing view that the worst of the credit crisis might be over.

Overall holdings of foreign stocks, bonds and money market
instruments increased 1.9093 trillion yen ($18.17 billion) to
33.9938 trillion yen at the end of April, data from the Japan
Investment Trust Association showed on Thursday.

The gain nearly matched March's fall of 1.9076 trillion yen,
reflecting a recovery in investor confidence after a month of
global stock sell-offs on fears about a widening credit crisis,
which led the dollar to plunge to a 13-year low against the yen.

Still, Japanese investors' overall holdings of foreign
assets were down 7.8 percent in April from the start of the
year.

The value of investment trust holdings is vulnerable to
sharp movements in the yen because funds don't usually hedge for
currency fluctuations.

In April, the dollar had powered higher near 105 yen, close
to levels last traded in late February, from a 13-year low of
95.77 yen hit in mid-March.

Overseas stock holdings rose 647.0 billion yen to 8.5646
trillion yen in April from the previous month, after an 890.8
billion yen drop in March. Foreign stock holdings as a
proportion of overall investments was 25.2 percent, little
changed from 24.7 percent the previous month.

Investments in foreign bonds rose 820.3 billion yen to
19.6736 trillion yen in April, with their proportion in overall
foreign investments inching down to 57.9 percent from 58.8
percent.

JAPAN FUND HOLDINGS OF FOREIGN ASSETS
(in billion yen)

change change

April from March year-to-date

--------------------------------------------
Stocks 8,564.6 +647.0 -1,723.6 (-16.7%)
Bonds 19,673.6 +820.3 -534.0 (-2.6%)
Money mkt 5,755.4 +441.9 -633.3 (-9.9%)
Total 33,993.8 +1,909.3 -2,890.8 (-7.8%)
($1=105.07 Yen)
(Reporting by Satomi Noguchi)