Foreign investors picked up financial and chemicals shares on the KOSPI, South Korea’s main bourse, last year while selling off electronics and construction stocks, data from the Korea Exchange showed Monday. (Image: Yonhap)
SEOUL, Jan. 15 (Korea Bizwire) — Foreign investors picked up financial and chemicals shares on the KOSPI, South Korea’s main bourse, last year while selling off electronics and construction stocks, data from the Korea Exchange showed Monday.
Offshore investors bought 6.58 trillion won (US$6.17 billion) worth of local stocks in 2017, of which financial stocks accounted for the majority with 5.16 trillion won. Shares in services were a distant second with 2.99 trillion won, followed by chemicals with 1.67 trillion won. Metals and steel came next with 1.55 trillion won, according to the data.
The foreigners shed 7.52 trillion won worth of shares in the electronics sector, 2.45 trillion won in manufacturing and 317.4 billion won in construction stocks.
By individual shares, the top purchase was KB Financial with 1.55 trillion won, followed by LG Electronics with 1.44 trillion won and LG Chemical with 1.23 trillion won.
Sell-offs included Samsung Electronics (6.13 trillion won) and SK hynix (1.57 trillion won).
On the secondary market KOSDAQ, the most purchased stock was Celltrion at 809.1 billion won while that for TissueGene was sold the most with 1.42 trillion won.
Foreigners bought 3.12 billion won worth of KOSDAQ shares last year, the highest on record.
(Yonhap)
