Foreign investors record net purchases for first time in 5 months

Foreign investors made US$2.23 billion of net purchases on the KOSPI index and US$111.41 million of net sales on the KOSDAQ

A person stands in front of monitors in the dealing room of KEB Hana Bank’s headquarters in Seoul on Wednesday. (Yonhap News)

Last month, foreign investors made net purchases of more than US$2 billion on the South Korean stock market, ending four straight months of net sales.

According to a report on foreign securities investment in September 2021 released by the Financial Supervisory Service on Thursday, foreign investment in publicly traded companies last month amounted to net purchases of 2.51 trillion won (US$2.12 billion). This year, foreigners’ net sales from January to March flipped to net purchases in April, which was followed by four more months of net sales, from May to August.

They made 2.64 trillion won (US$2.23 billion) of net purchases on Korea’s benchmark KOSPI index and 132 billion won (US$111.41 million) of net sales on the secondary KOSDAQ.

Broken down by country, investors from Singapore were the biggest net purchasers of domestic stock last month, at 2.79 trillion won (US$2.35 billion). Next on the list for net purchases were the Cayman Islands, at 1.36 trillion won (US$1.15 billion), and the US, at 850 billion won (US$718 million).

As of the end of September, foreigners held 769.2 trillion won (US$649.74 billion) in listed stock, which amounted to 28.1% of market capitalization.

Last month’s investment trends show that foreigners made a net investment of 7.68 trillion won (US$6.49 billion) in bonds. That extends a net investment trend going back to January 2021.

Foreigners’ bond holdings at the end of September were calculated at 203.6 trillion won (US$172.02 billion), representing 9.2% of all listed bonds. Foreigners’ month-end bond holdings have set a new record every month since January.

By Lee Kyung-mi, staff reporter

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