U.S. Investors Active Overseas

U.S. investors bought a record net $9.4 billion of foreign shares in the second quarter, while foreign investors purchased a net $7.7 billion of U.S. shares, the Securities Industry Assn. said.

American investors’ hunger for foreign shares in the second quarter was focused on issues in Britain ($2.7 billion of the $9.4 billion total) and Japan ($2.6 billion):

* Britain was still mired in recession in the second quarter, but that didn’t deter American buyers who evidently were looking “to get in on the ground floor of an economic recovery” there, SIA said.

* Japanese stocks were targeted by bargain hunting Americans who saw the market’s 40% plunge in 1990 as a major long-term buying opportunity, SIA said.

Meanwhile, foreign purchases of $7.7 billion in U.S. shares during the quarter were the second-largest ever, after the record $8.7 billion in the second quarter of 1987. Japanese and Canadian investors led the buying.

The SIA is a trade group of North American brokerages and investment banks that regularly tracks money flows into and out of stocks.