July 4 Reuters Foreign purchases boosted Japanese stocks last week amid a weakening yen and global enthusiasm for artificial intelligencelinked companies, which tempered concerns about the Bank of Japan39;s policy outlook.

According to exchange data, crossborder investors snapped up Japanese stocks worth a net 604.93 billion yen in the week ending June 28, marking their largest weekly net purchase since April 12.

Investors acquired 480.96 billion yen in derivative contracts and 123.97 billion yen in cash equities, a stark contrast to the previous week39;s net selling of 603.7 billion yen and 21.37 billion yen, respectively.

Technologyrelated shares attracted strong demand, with semiconductor testing equipment maker Advantest soaring about 11, and AIfocused startup investor SoftBank Group climbing around 5 during the week.

The Topix stock index posted its biggest weekly gain since March 12, rising 3.12 last week, while the Nikkei share average increased about 2.56.

Both indexes closed at record highs on Thursday, supported by optimism over robust corporate performance in the latter half of the year.

However, overseas investors pulled approximately 130.9 billion yen from longterm Japanese bonds, extending net selling to a third consecutive week, data from the Ministry of Finance showed.

They also shed shortterm debt securities of a net 1.15 trillion yen, their third straight weekly net disposal.

Japanese investors, meanwhile, pulled out of foreign bonds for a second…