A rush to buy shares in U.S. tech giants such as Apple Inc. and Tesla Motors Inc. led the craze over purchasing foreign stocks. (image: Korea Bizwire)
SEOUL, Feb. 4 (Korea Bizwire) — The craze over purchasing foreign stocks continues among South Korean investors.
A rush to buy shares in U.S. tech giants such as Apple Inc. and Tesla Motors Inc. led the craze over purchasing foreign stocks.
The Korea Securities Depository reported the value of foreign stock transactions (both buy and sell) reached $5.2 billion in January, up from US$3.9 billion in the previous month.
This is twice the volume of transactions in the same month last year ($2.3 billion).
Shares of Amazon ($211 million) were the most popular, followed by Tesla ($203 million) and Apple ($175 million).
Other U.S. tech firms including Microsoft Corp., Alphabet Inc., and American chip maker Advanced Micro Devices also ranked in the top 10.
Tesla, in particular, jumped in terms of popularity after going from 15th place in transaction rankings last November to second place in January.
As of January 31, local investors held $257 million of Tesla shares, up by more than $100 million since the previous month ($144 million).
Transactions of Tesla shares jumped by more than 50 percent in January only, seducing local investors.
“Tesla prevails not only in electric cars, but also in autonomous driving technology,” said Lee Jae-il, a researcher at Eugene Investment Co.
H. M. Kang (hmkang@koreabizwire.com)
