Foreign investors were net buyers of Japanese stocks for the sixth straight week last week, the longest duration in 14 months.

They bought 154.6 billion yen more than they sold on the Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya bourses in the Jan. 29 to Feb. 2 week, compared with 196.3 billion yen the previous week.

This was the longest stint of net purchases by foreign investors since the eight-week buying excess till the fourth week of November 1999.

In January, nonresident investors' buying excess totaled 904.4 billion yen, up from 34.3 billion yen in December.

As calm returned to the New York Stock Exchange and other major markets overseas, international investors returned to Japanese markets in search of potential profit gains, brokerage officials noted.

Interest rate cuts by the U.S. Federal Reserve and measures being weighed by Japan's ruling coalition to help shore up the domestic stock markets were cited as other major factors.

Among domestic investors, long-term credit, city and regional banks were net buyers for a second week, with their buying excess at 108.5 billion yen, the sixth-largest on record, compared with 86.8 billion yen the previous week.

After selling 212.8 billion yen more than they bought in the third week of last month, the banks adjusted their oversold positions. Individual investors were net buyers in debit accounts for the second week running, with their purchases on credit at 31 billion yen, showing little change from the previous week.