Foreigners Net Sold 1.6 Trillion KRW in Domestic Stocks Last Month... 'Selling' Turned After 2 Months

[Asia Economy Reporter Ji Yeon-jin] Foreign investors turned to net selling in domestic listed stocks last month after two months of net buying.

The Financial Supervisory Service announced on the 14th that in January, foreign investors net sold 1.677 trillion KRW in listed stocks and net invested 3.673 trillion KRW in listed bonds, resulting in a total net investment of 1.996 trillion KRW. Stocks turned to net selling after two months, while bonds maintained a net investment trend since January last year.

Last month, foreign investors net sold 1.677 trillion KRW worth of listed stocks, reducing their stock holdings to 722.5 trillion KRW, down 62.8 trillion KRW from the previous month. The market capitalization share decreased by 0.5 percentage points to 28.2% from 28.7% the previous month.

In the KOSPI market, they net bought 629 billion KRW worth, but net sold 2.306 trillion KRW in the KOSDAQ market.

They net bought in the Americas region (2 trillion KRW), while net selling occurred in Europe (-2.3 trillion KRW), Asia (-1.3 trillion KRW), and the Middle East (-100 billion KRW). The United States led with net purchases of 1.7 trillion KRW, followed by Canada with 200 billion KRW.

The United States holds 293.8 trillion KRW worth of domestic stocks, accounting for 40.7% of total foreign holdings. Europe holds 221.9 trillion KRW, Asia 99.4 trillion KRW, and the Middle East 24.4 trillion KRW, respectively.

Last month, foreign investors net bought 6.751 trillion KRW in listed bonds and redeemed 378 billion KRW at maturity, resulting in a total net investment of 3.73 trillion KRW. As of the end of last month, foreign investors held 217.8 trillion KRW in listed bonds, accounting for 9.7% of the outstanding amount. The month-end holdings of foreign investors have been setting record highs every month since January last year.

During this period, Europe net invested 1.7 trillion KRW, the largest amount, followed by the Middle East (700 billion KRW), Asia (100 billion KRW), and the Americas (100 billion KRW). The holding size in Asia was 100.7 trillion KRW, accounting for 46.3% of total foreign holdings.

In government bonds, they net invested about 4.1 trillion KRW, while they net withdrew 300 billion KRW in Monetary Stabilization Bonds. As of the end of last month, foreign investors held 168.4 trillion KRW (77.3%) in government bonds and 49.2 trillion KRW (22.6%) in special bonds.

They net invested in bonds with remaining maturities of 1 to less than 5 years (3 trillion KRW) and 5 years or more (2.1 trillion KRW), while net withdrawing 1.4 trillion KRW in short-term bonds with maturities under 1 year.

As of last month, foreign investors held 98.6 trillion KRW (45.3%) in bonds with remaining maturities of 1 to less than 5 years, 63.6 trillion KRW (29.2%) in bonds with maturities of 5 years or more, and 55.6 trillion KRW (25.5%) in bonds with maturities under 1 year.

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