Foreign investors snapped up shares worth roughly 2 trillion won ($1.5 billion) in the local stock market last month, with US investors spurring the buying momentum, according to the country’s financial watchdog.
In May, offshore investors poured 2.1 trillion won into the local stock market, combining the benchmark Kospi and the secondary bourse Kosdaq, turning to a net-buying stance for the first time since August, data from the Financial Supervisory Service showed Thursday.
The buying spree was more concentrated on the Kospi. Of the total, 1.87 trillion won was injected into the Kospi, while the secondary Kosdaq saw net buying of 143 billion won.
US investors led the charge, scooping up 1.8 trillion won worth of shares on both markets, accounting for roughly 90 percent of the total foreign purchases. This marks a sharp reversal from April, when the investors offloaded 1.46 trillion won in Korean equities.
Other notable net buyers included Ireland and the Cayman Islands, a well-known tax haven, each posting net purchases of 584 billion won and 290 billion won.
Yet, investors from Canada sold off stocks worth 605 billion won, followed by Norway and the United Arab Emirates, which dumped 532 billion won and 392 billion won in equity, respectively.
With the latest buying spree, foreign investors' holdings of Korean equity stood at 748.8 trillion won, taking up 26.7 percent of the total market capitalization.
US investors held Korean shares worth 300 trillion won, accounting for 40 percent of total foreign ownership in the market. The UK followed with 91.2 trillion won in holdings, accounting for 12.2 percent of total foreign ownership, while Singapore held 54.1 trillion won, or 7.2 percent.
Foreign investors continued their fourth-month buying spree in the listed bond market in May.
They purchased bonds worth 16.66 trillion won and received 5.32 trillion won in redemptions at maturity, resulting in a net investment of 11.34 trillion won.
As of end-May, their holdings of local bonds had come to 300.5 trillion won, accounting for 11.2 percent of listed bonds here.
The Financial Supervisory Service compiles foreign securities investment data based on settlement figures, while the bourse operator Korea Exchange uses execution-based data.
silverstar@heraldcorp.com
