Foreign investors net buyers of Korean stocks for fifth straight month

[Photo by MK DB]

Foreign investors purchased a net total of 1.17 trillion won ($886 million) worth of South Korean stocks in February, marking the fifth consecutive month of net purchases, according to the Financial Supervisory Service’s report released on Thursday.

Of the total, 535 billion won was spent on KOSPI stocks and 634 billion won on KOSDAQ stocks. Although the size decreased significantly compared with 6.15 trillion won in January, their net buying of Korean stocks has remained consistent since last October.

At the end of February, foreign investors held a total of 635.1 trillion won worth of Korean stocks, down by 900 billion won from the previous month. Their holdings accounted for 26.7 percent of the total market capitalization of all publicly traded companies in the country.

In the bond market, foreign investors bought 2.82 trillion won worth of listed bonds and 3.6 trillion won worth of bonds were redeemed at maturity. At the end of February, foreign investors held a total of 221.4 trillion won worth of listed bonds, down by 600 billion won from the previous month. The holdings accounted for 9.2 percent of the total listed bonds.