Foreigners keep to net-buy position in Korean stocks and bonds in December

[Source: Financial Supervisory Service]

Foreigners kept to net buy position for Korean stocks and bonds in the final month of 2021, data showed Monday.

According to the Financial Supervisory Service, foreigners net bought 4.36 trillion won ($3.6 billion) in Korean stocks - 3.695 trillion won on the Kospi and 662 billion won on the secondary Kosdaq. They kept to net buy position for the second consecutive month after 2.54 trillion won worth net purchase in November. Foreigners were net sellers most of last year.

U.S. investors accounted for the lion¡¯s share of 2.26 trillion won, followed by Malaysia with 734 billion won, Norway with 549 billion won, and France with 524 billion won. Investors from the United Kingdom, Singapore, and the Netherlands net sold 2.466 trillion won, 216 billion won, and 106 billion won, respectively.

By the end of December, foreigners owned 785.2 trillion won worth Korean stocks, up 51.1 trillion won from the previous month and behind 28.7 percent of Korean Inc. market cap.

Net foreign investment in bonds amounted to 5.56 trillion won, with 4.68 trillion won worth maturing among the 10.23 trillion won worth bonds net bought by offshore investors in December.

Bond holdings by non-Koreans amounted to 214 trillion won by the end of December, up 5.8 trillion won from the previous month and making up 9.6 percent of circulating bonds. Foreign bond-holdings has hit fresh monthly highs since January 2021.

Foreigners held 164.1 trillion won (76.7%) of government bonds and 49.9 trillion won (23.3%) of special or quasi-government bonds.

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