Foreign investors were net buyers of Korean stocks in August for the first time this year, snapping a seven-month selling streak, though the level remained modest after heavy selloffs in previous months.
Overseas investors bought a net 344 billion won ($248.4 million) worth of locally listed shares last month, according to data released Friday by the Financial Supervisory Service. It marked their first monthly net purchase since December.
The turnaround followed particularly heavy selling in recent months. Foreign investors unloaded a net 47 trillion won in May, 49.3 trillion won in June and 31.7 trillion won in July. Despite August's reversal, their cumulative net selling for the first eight months of the year stood at 194.9 trillion won.
Buying was concentrated in the main Kospi market. Foreign investors purchased a net 1.89 trillion won of Kospi shares while selling 1.55 trillion won on the secondary Kosdaq market.
Flows also diverged sharply by investor nationality. US investors were the largest net buyers at 13.38 trillion won, followed by investors from Ireland at 3.21 trillion won and Luxembourg at 2.34 trillion won. British investors, meanwhile, sold a net 16.9 trillion won, while Cayman Islands-based investors offloaded 2.72 trillion won.
At the end of August, foreign investors held 2,280.6 trillion won in Korean listed shares, equivalent to 34.8 percent of the country's total market capitalization.
The August turnaround has not extended into September. Korea Exchange data showed that foreign investors sold a net 12.24 trillion won of Kospi shares through Thursday. Selling was concentrated in chip heavyweights, with foreign investors offloading a net 3.58 trillion won of Samsung Electronics and 5.49 trillion won of SK hynix this month, the two stocks accounting for nearly 80 percent of their total net selling.
Foreign investors, however, were net buyers of several large-cap stocks across other sectors, including Woori Financial Group, SK Square, Korean Air and SK Innovation.
jwc@heraldcorp.com
