Foreign investors sold a net 1.71 trillion won (US$1.26 billion) worth of South Korean stocks in September. (Image courtesy of Korea Bizwire)
SEOUL, Oct. 19 (Korea Bizwire) — Foreign investors sold a net 1.71 trillion won (US$1.26 billion) worth of South Korean stocks in September, extending their selling spree for a second consecutive month, data showed Thursday.
After the sell-off, foreigners owned some 663.7 trillion won worth of local stocks, or 26.7 percent of total market capitalization, compared with 26.9 percent at the end of August, according to the data from the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS).
By country, the United States was the top net buyer of local stocks, net purchasing 1.2 trillion won worth of shares, followed by Canada with a net purchase of 600 billion won.
British investors net sold 3 trillion won worth of stocks, with Switzerland net selling 700 billion won.
The U.S. was also the biggest holder of South Korean stocks, holding 274.3 trillion won worth of local stocks that accounted for 41.3 percent of all local shares held by foreigners as of end-September.
Foreign investors also sold a net 600 billion won from the local bond market last month.
Their cumulative holdings of local bonds came to 242.4 trillion won, accounting for 9.8 percent of listed bonds here as of end-September.
(Yonhap)
