Foreigners Buy South Korean Stocks for 8th Month in June

Foreigners acquired a net 2.9 trillion won (2.1 billion U.S. dollars) worth of domestic listed stocks in June, remaining net buyers since November 2023, according to the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS).

Offshore investors were net buyers in the main bourse KOSPI and the smaller KOSDAQ market.

The consecutive foreign purchase came after the financial authorities prohibited the short-selling on all listed stocks in November 2023.

Short-selling refers to the sale of stocks by borrowing them in anticipation of price fall, before repaying the borrowed shares when the price goes down. It has been seen as one of the main culprits for the stock market rout.

Foreign holdings of local listed stocks totaled 859.2 trillion won (622.8 billion dollars) at the end of June, taking up 30 percent of the total market capitalization.

Overseas investors bought a net 4.37 trillion won (3.2 billion dollars) worth of domestic listed bonds in June.

Given the maturing debts worth 5.42 trillion won (3.9 billion dollars), the foreign net disinvestment in the local bond market stood at 1.05 trillion won (761 million dollars) in June.

Foreign ownership of local bonds came in at 251.5 trillion won (182.3 billion dollars) at the end of June, accounting for 9.8 percent of the total listed bonds.

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