Foreign investors poured more than a net 3 trillion won ($2.8 billion) into the tech-heavy KOSDAQ market last year to spearhead the record rally of the secondary bourse, industry data showed Monday.

A net 3.13 trillion won worth of KOSDAQ-listed shares were purchased by offshore investors in 2017, outnumbering a net 668.3 billion won by individual buyers, according to the data by the Korea Exchange. At the same time, institutional investors dumped a net 1.8 trillion won worth of shares over the same period.

Last year's foreign purchases marked the largest annual tally since the KOSDAQ bourse was launched in 1996, usurping the earlier record of a net 1.8 trillion won reached in 2013.

The secondary KOSDAQ surpassed the 800-point mark on Nov. 24 for the first time since Nov. 7, 2007, coming up from 650 as of the end of September and 700 on Nov. 3.

On the back of the boom in foreign investment, foreign ownership in the KOSDAQ market accounted for a 10-year high of 13.2 percent in terms of total market capitalization last year.

Biopharmaceutical firm Celltrion Inc., the top cap of the secondary KOSDAQ market, and the biotech company SillaJen Inc. were their top picks, with bio stocks having powered the strong run of the KOSDAQ market last year. (Yonhap)