Foreign Securities Holdings Increase 66%
Korea Securities Depository announced on Jan. 21 that South Korean investors’ foreign securities settlement totaled US$323.39 billion at the end of last year, up 88.9 percent from a year earlier. In that period, their foreign securities holdings increased 65.6 percent to US$72.22 billion.
The settlement includes US$23.29 billion of Tesla shares and the amount spiked from about US$400 million in one year. Their combined shareholding in the company was US$7.84 billion, 10.8 percent of the total.
In terms of settlement, Tesla was followed by Apple (US$10.48 billion), Amazon (US$7.09 billion), Microsoft (US$5.23 billion) and Nvidia (US$4.83 billion). By country, the United States accounted for 61 percent of the total settlement, followed by the eurozone, Hong Kong, China and Japan. The five regions accounted for 99.9 percent of the total settlement.
When it comes to securities holdings, the United States’ ratio was 52.1 percent and that of the five regions was 97.6 percent. Cash dividends from the foreign currency securities added up to US$313 million, up 71 percent from a year ago.