Foreign investors remain picky about what they buy in South Korea's stock market amid their strong presence here, data showed Friday.

Foreigners owned more than 500 trillion won ($434 billion) worth of local shares as of January, 32 percent of the total market capitalization of all companies listed on the nation's bourse.

But their possession is concentrated in a small bucket of shares.
 

Among a total of 2,249 companies listed on the local stock market, only 466, or 20.7 percent, boasted 10 percent or more of shares owned by foreigners as of the end of last month, according to the data compiled by the Korea Exchange, the country's bourse operator.

Foreigners had no shares in around 10 percent of listed firms in South Korea and possess 10 percent or less of stocks in the remainder.

Englewood Lab, which provides contract manufacturing services for skin care products, is the only listed firm with more than 90 percent of stocks held by foreigners.

In case of heavyweights, the nation's leading Internet portal Naver had 60.8 percent of stocks owned by foreigners.

The ratio stood at 50.5 percent at top market cap Samsung Electronics, 49.4 percent at chipmaker SK hynix, 44.6 percent at top automaker Hyundai Motor, 31.1 percent at Korea Electric Power Corp., 47.2 percent at Hyundai Mobis, 54.7 percent at leading steelmaker POSCO and 15.6 percent at Samsung Life Insurance.

Meanwhile, foreigners earned 6.7 trillion won in dividend income from their investments here this year, showed a separate tally compiled by market tracker FnGuide.

It marks 38 percent of 17.7 trillion won in dividend payout by 791 firms of which accounts were settled in December.

It means foreigners own more stocks paying relatively high dividends.

When it comes to the dividend volume for foreign investors, Samsung Electronics topped the list with 1.9 trillion won, up 35 percent from last year.

Shinhan Financial Group came second with 466.3 billion won, followed by KB Financial Group with 329.7 billion won and SK Telecom with 296.3 billion won. (Yonhap)