The number of foreign investors in South Korea’s stock and bond markets exceeded 480,058 last year, up 1,358 from a year earlier, according to the nation’s financial regulator Financial Supervisory Service on Monday.

Of the total figure, individuals made up 11,657, while institutional investors made up 36,401, including 23,064 private funds, 2,305 pension funds, 997 stock brokerage firms, 738 banks and 512 insurance firms.

By nationality, the US and Japan were the two largest players in the markets, with investors from both nations taking up more than 40 percent of entire foreign investors in Korea.

The number of US investors was 15,840, or 33 percent of the total, and the figure for the Japanese came in at 4,170, or 8.7 percent.

Korea has seen a consistent increase of foreign investors every year since it fully opened its financial market to global investors in 1998.

In 1999, the total number of foreign investors in Korean stock and bond markets stood at a mere 38,104.

However, the inflow of foreigners has slowed down slightly in recent years -- rising 1,769 on-year in 2018 and 1,358 in 2019.

By Kim Young-won (wone0102@heraldcorp.com)