Foreign investors stay keen on Korean debts, shift to selling in shares

[Source: Financial Supervisory Service]

Foreign investors kept buying spree on Korean debt for the fifth month in May while ending their brief shift to net buying position on Korean stocks, cashing out over $9 billion in net last month.

Non-Korean nationals net sold 10.16 trillion won ($9.15 billion) worth of Korean stocks in May - 9.72 trillion won in the main Kospi bourse and 440 billion won in the secondary Kosdaq, according to the Financial Supervisory Service.

Except for April, foreigners have been net sellers in Korean shares since December.

Foreign stock ownership came to 820.2 trillion won as of the end of May, falling 2.3 trillion won from a month prior and behind 30.1 percent of the total market capitalization.

Americans held the largest 336.4 trillion won worth of Korean shares, or 41 percent of the total foreign stock ownership. Investors from Europe held 255.1 trillion won (31.1 percent), from Asia 105.3 trillion won (12.8 percent), and from the Middle East 30.3 trillion won (3.7 percent).

Investors from Europe sold the largest 6.4 trillion won in net, followed by those from the United States 2.9 trillion won and the United Kingdom 2.7 trillion won. But investors from Singapore net purchased 700 billion won and Canada 300 billion won.

Foreigners stayed keen to Korean debts. They net invested 5.51 trillion won, with net purchase of 10.18 trillion won in listed bonds and redemption of 4.67 trillion won upon maturity.

Foreign holdings in Korean debts stood at 179.1 trillion won as of end-May, up 5.2 trillion won from a month ago. Their share in the entire debt market was 8.3 percent.

Investors from Asia held the 84.5 trillion won in Korean bonds, Europeans 53.9 trillion won and Americans 15.6 trillion won.

They net purchased 3.6 trillion won in Korean government bonds and also 900 billion won in monetary stabilization bonds. By maturity, they net invested 4.4 trillion won in bonds dated from one year to less than five years, 900 billion won in bonds dated five years and longer. They collected 200 billion won in net from bonds dated less than one year.

[¨Ï Maeil Business Newspaper & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]