Portfolio Investments March 2006

Extensive trade in debt securities Cross-border portfolio investment in March resulted in capital outflows of SEK 9.2 billion. The outflow is partly explained by Swedish investors’ interest in foreign debt securities, with total net purchases amounting to SEK 44.1 billion, and partly by foreign portfolio managers reducing their holdings in SEK-denominated debt securities by SEK 29.5 billion. During the month of March net purchases of foreign equity securities totalled SEK 14.1 billion; the main buyers were insurance companies and pension institutions. The largest share of the acquisition concerned US, Norwegian, and Swiss equity securities. Foreign investors’ trade in Swedish equity securities generated a net inflow of SEK 3.9 billion. There was very positive interest in the Handelsbanken and Nordea shares in particular, with net purchases of these totalling SEK 3.3 billion. Swedish investors increased their assets in foreign debt securities by SEK 30 billion. The greater part of the inflow concerned net purchases of British, Finnish and German debt securities. Foreign investors placed a total of SEK 30.9 billion in Swedish debt securities. This inflow was mainly attributable to MFI sector issues abroad in foreign currencies. Foreign investors reduced their holdings in SEK-denominated debt securities issued by the central government and by mortgage institutions in particular. The repo statistics indicate that sales of mortgage bonds were partly financed through the repo market.