Record High
The combined value of South Korean stocks held by foreign investors surpassed 528 trillion won (US$461.94 billion) last month, reaching a record high. Also, foreign investors are continuously raising their holdings of South Korean bonds this year.
According to the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) on April 10, foreign investors bought 3.29 trillion won (US$2.88 billion) worth of local listed stocks last month. They net purchased 3.2 trillion won (US$2.8 billion) and 100 billion won (US$87.49 million) worth stocks of companies listed on the main bourse Kospi and secondary Kosdaq, respectively. They bought mainly large-cap stocks on the Kospi. By country, investors from the U.S. net purchased more than 3.9 trillion won (US$3.41 billion) worth of local stocks, followed by the Cayman Islands with 174 billion won (US$152.23 million) and Canada with 168 billion won (US$146.98 million). On the other hand, investors from Britain net sold 982 billion won (US$859.14 million) worth of stocks, followed by Israel with 361 billion won (US$315.84 million) and France with 222 billion won (US$194.23 million).
The Chinese selling trend, which had continued from August last year, slightly fell. Investors from China, who sold 123 billion won (US$107.61 million) worth of local stocks in February, net sold 66 billion won (US$57.74 million) worth of stocks last month. Some analysts said that the Chinese selling trend, which started after the Chinese government heightened its retaliatory actions against South Korea’s decision to deploy the U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) anti-missile system on its soil, is gradually cooling down.
Foreign ownership in South Korean stocks hit a fresh record high of 528.8 trillion won (US$462.64 billion) as of the end of March, accounting for 32.4 percent of the nation's total market capitalization. By region, U.S. investors held a total of 220.8 trillion won (US$193.18 billion) worth of South Korean stocks, making up 41.8 percent of the total foreign ownership, followed by Europe with 150.2 trillion won (US$131.41 billion), Asia with 64.8 trillion won (US$56.69 billion) and Middle East with 24.3 trillion won (US$21.26 billion).
Foreign investors raised their holdings of South Korean bonds by 2.07 trillion won (US$1.81 billion) last month. It marked the third straight month that foreigners remained net buyers of South Korean debts from January. As of the end of last month, foreigners' holdings of South Korean bonds stood at 98.7 trillion won (US$86.35 billion), accounting for 6.1 percent of total going public bonds. By region, Asian investors made a net purchase of 1.4 trillion won (US$1.22 billion), followed by the Americas with 400 billion won (US$349.96 million) and Middle East with 300 billion won (US$262.47 million). The combined value of South Korean bonds held by Asian investors were 39.8 trillion won (US$34.82 billion), making up 40.3 percent of the total, followed by European investors with 34 trillion won (US$29.75 billion) or 34.4 percent and American with 12.9 trillion won (US$11.29 billion) or 13.1 percent. Due to a redemption at maturity, the national bonds had a net outflow slightly.