Foreign Net Stock Selling Reaches 5.4 Tril. Won in April
The Financial Supervisory Service announced on May 11 that foreign investors’ net stock selling in South Korea totaled 5,393 billion won last month after the amount reached 3,225 billion won in February and 13,450 billion won in March.
Specifically, European investors’ net selling volume amounted to 2.1 trillion won and those of U.S. and Asian investors added up to one trillion won and 700 billion won, respectively. Likewise, those in the Cayman Islands and French investors net-sold stocks worth 1.2 trillion won and 1 trillion won, respectively. On the other hand, Saudi Arabian, Chinese and Taiwanese investors net-bought stocks worth 300 billion won, 200 billion won and 100 billion won, respectively. As of the end of last month, foreign investors’ shareholding represented 31.5 percent (505 trillion won) of the aggregate value of the South Korean stock market.
Last month, foreign investors’ net purchase of listed bonds totaled 9,321 billion won and redemption at maturity totaled 1,938 billion won. Their net investment in the South Korean bond market was 4,623 billion won in January, 570 billion won in February, 3,381 billion won in March and 7,383 billion won in April.
Their listed bond holdings hit an all-time high of 140.5 trillion won, equivalent to 7.3 percent of the total. The net investment from Asia was 5.4 trillion won, followed by Europe (900 billion won) and the Middle East (700 billion won).