The recent terrorist attacks in the United States prompted foreign investors to unload their equity holdings on the Japanese stock market last week.

Nonresidents turned net sellers of Japanese stocks for the first time in five weeks, selling nearly 300 billion yen more than they bought, the largest in three months, according to a weekly industry report.

Specifically, they sold 1.38 trillion yen worth of stocks, 294.82 billion yen more than they bought, against net purchases of 2.42 billion yen the previous week.

The closure of the New York Stock Exchange apparently hastened foreign selling on the Japanese markets, brokerage officials noted.

Foreign investors' selloffs centered on Toyota, Honda and Sony shares, along with other export-oriented companies dependent on the U.S. market.

Among major sellers were U.S.-based investors, major net buyers in recent months.

After remaining net buyers for nine months up to August, American institutional investors were busy unwinding their Japanese positions.

In contrast, many domestic players geared up for increased purchases, hunting for bargains.

Long-term credit banks, city banks and regional banks as a whole logged 81.37 billion yen in net purchases -- their first buying excess in 12 weeks -- in a turnaround from net sales of 40.64 billion yen the previous week.

As far as their transactions on the Tokyo Stock Exchange's first section are concerned, their net purchases were the highest on record.

With the Sept. 30 end of the fiscal first half drawing near, those banks' sales to unwind cross-shareholdings apparently have peaked, brokerage officials said.