Foreign investors bought a net 344 billion won ($248 million) worth of South Korean stocks in August, turning buyers for the first time in eight months after months of selling.
Foreign investors were net buyers of 344 billion won in listed Korean shares in August, according to the Financial Supervisory Service on the 18th. They bought a net 1.888 trillion won on the main KOSPI board while selling a net 1.545 trillion won on the KOSDAQ market.
By region, investors from the Americas were net buyers of 13.4 trillion won, while those from Europe, Asia and the Middle East were net sellers.
As of the end of August, foreign investors held 2,280.6 trillion won in Korean stocks, or 34.8% of total market capitalization. U.S. investors held the largest amount at 999.7 trillion won, followed by Europe at 676.9 trillion won and Asia at 312.8 trillion won.
In the bond market, foreign investors sold a net 3.935 trillion won of listed bonds in August and received 801 billion won in maturing redemptions, for total net withdrawals of 4.736 trillion won.
By region, investors from Asia and the Middle East were net investors, while those from Europe and the Americas withdrew funds on a net basis.
Net withdrawals came to 3.5 trillion won from treasury bonds and 1.2 trillion won from special-purpose bonds. Holdings of the two stood at 315 trillion won and 15.1 trillion won, respectively, at the end of August.
By remaining maturity, foreign investors made net investments of 2.1 trillion won in bonds with maturities of five years or longer, while withdrawing a net 6.3 trillion won from bonds maturing in less than a year and 600 billion won from those maturing in one to five years.
Foreign holdings of listed Korean bonds totaled 330.3 trillion won at the end of August, down 5.8 trillion won from the previous month.
