Foreigners Switch Back to Net Selling Domestic Stocks After One Month... Holdings at Lowest in 12 Years

[Asia Economy Reporter Ji Yeon-jin] Last month, foreign investors sold off 3.335 trillion KRW worth of domestic listed stocks, turning back to net selling after just one month. Listed bonds saw a net investment of 2.5179 trillion KRW, continuing ten consecutive months of net investment since January this year.

According to the 'October Foreign Securities Investment Trends' released by the Financial Supervisory Service on the 10th, as of the end of last month, foreigners held 742.2 trillion KRW (27.8% of market capitalization) in listed stocks and 205.1 trillion KRW (9.2% of the listed balance) in listed bonds. The total holdings of listed securities amounted to 947.3 trillion KRW.

In the domestic stock market, foreigners net sold 3.422 trillion KRW in the KOSPI market last month, while net buying 87 billion KRW in KOSDAQ, resulting in a net selling of 3.335 trillion KRW. Following net sales exceeding 24 trillion KRW last year, foreigners have continued their net selling streak this year except in May and last month. Foreign ownership fell from 28.1% of market capitalization in September to 27.8% last month, reaching the lowest level since May 2009, just after the global financial crisis.

The region with the largest net selling last month was Europe (-1.8 trillion KRW), followed by the Americas (-800 billion KRW), Asia (-700 billion KRW), and the Middle East (-300 billion KRW).

On the other hand, last month foreigners net purchased 4.288 trillion KRW in listed bonds and redeemed 1.771 trillion KRW at maturity, resulting in a net investment of 2.517 trillion KRW. As of the end of last month, foreigners’ holdings of listed bonds reached 205.1 trillion KRW, accounting for 9.2% of the listed balance. This has been setting record highs every month since January.

Europe made net investments worth 2.9 trillion KRW, while Asia and the Middle East purchased 700 billion KRW and 100 billion KRW respectively. The holding size in Asia was 95.7 trillion KRW, representing 46.6% of the total foreign holdings.

Foreigners net invested 3.2 trillion KRW in government bonds and net withdrew about 500 billion KRW in Monetary Stabilization Bonds. Foreign holdings consist of 157 trillion KRW (76.5%) in government bonds and 48.1 trillion KRW (23.4%) in special bonds. For bonds with a remaining maturity of over 5 years, foreigners net invested about 2.9 trillion KRW, while net withdrawing 2.4 trillion KRW for 1 to 5 years maturity and 2.7 trillion KRW for less than 1 year maturity.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.