In a rare development in recent months, the balance of shares bought on credit rose last week for the second consecutive week.

The outstanding balance of long margin positions on the Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya bourses stood at 1.71 trillion yen at the end of the week, up 40.71 billion yen from a week before, according to a weekly industry report.

The balance turned higher in the fourth week of January, ending a 17-week back-to-back decline.

Individual investors moved in amid reports that the ruling parties were weighing steps to help shore up stock prices. As another morale booster, brokerage officials cited a strong pickup in foreign buying.

They added, however, that many individual investors see no strong reason for taking major positions in the choppy market.

Indeed, the outstanding balance still stopped far short of last year's peak of 4.92 trillion yen set March 3, when the benchmark 225-issue Nikkei average was flirting with a 31-month high of 20,000, compared with 13,703,63 at the end of last week.

In terms of volume, the balance of margin buying stood at 2.307 billion shares, up 66.43 million, indicating a shift in investor preference from high-priced issues into long-neglected low- and medium-price cyclical issues.

The balance of shares sold short, on the other hand, fell for the second straight week to end the week at 677.75 billion yen, down 31.24 billion yen.

In volume, the balance of short margin positions rose 29 million shares to 721 million shares.