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To: GST who wrote (97871)	3/30/2000 11:32:00 PM
From: GST	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 164684

H James -- Buy Japan. POLL-Japanese urged to buy more stocks,fewer bonds By Akiko Ishiwata TOKYO, March 31 (Reuters) - Japanese investors are being urged to boost investment in equities next month, especially domestic stocks as Japanese share prices are expected to be bouyed by the inflow of postal savings funds and hopes for economic recovery. Reuters monthly Global Asset Allocation survey of 10 major Japan-based fund managers and advisers found, based on their model porfolios for April, that investors were being urged to increase the proportion of money invested in domestic stocks, and reduce the portion invested in bonds and kept in cash. The average recommended equities portfolio weighting jumped to 56.34 percent for April from 52.43 percent in March, while that for bonds dropped to 29.88 percent from 31.67 percent. The amount Japanese investors are urged to keep in cash -- a defensive measure signalling uncertainty -- fell to 13.79 percent from 15.90 percent. The forecast weighting for U.S. shares, at 37.50 against a previous 37.65 percent, continues to exceed that for Japanese and European stocks due to brisk U.S. economic fundamentals despite some concerns about further credit tightening. JAPAN INVESTORS KEEN ON HOME-GROWN SHARES The survey showed investors are urged to shift more funds into Japanese stocks on hopes that money from maturing postal savings funds and new investment trusts will flow into the market from April 1, the start of a new financial year. Some 106 trillion yen ($1,003 billion) in postal savings time deposits mature over the next two years. Some of that money is expected to be invested in Japanese stocks and stock investments trusts, as investors accept more risk in seeking higher rates of return than the yields offered by bonds and other fixed-rate investments in an era of ultra-low interest rates.. Investors are urged to raise their average rating for Japanese shares to 27.27 percent from 25.62 percent in March. Tokyo Securities, for one, sees Japanese corporate profits as having bottomed out and maturing postal savings funds flowing into stocks, so the brokerage is raising its weighting in Japanese shares to 31 percent from 28 percent. The portfolio rating for Europe, meanwhile, has been bumped up to 22.90 percent from 22.71 percent, reflecting its linkage to the U.S. share market and expectations for active merger and acquisition activity. SAFE HAVEN IN U.S. BONDS Investors are being urged to shrink their average global weighting for bonds to 29.88 percent in April from 31.67 the previous month due to jitters over the end of deflation and good economic prospects. But the recommended weighting for U.S. bonds is being raised to 38.42 percent from 37.43 as advisers see them as a ``safe haven' compared to other major bond markets. The recommended weighting of Japanese bonds should be cut to 7.83 percent in April from 9.64 percent, the survey found, due to increasing signs the nation's economic recovery is on track and worries about when the Bank of Japan (BOJ) might abandon its zero interest rate policy, in place since February 1999. ``Although we think the BOJ will stick to its zero interest rate policy, the market will be volatile in reaction to comments by authorities,' Dowa Kasai Investment Management said. ($1 equals 105.69 Yen)