Foreign investors’ ownership of South Korean stocks hit a 13-year-high at the end of last year, making them over $90 billion rich from owning Korean shares.

According to the Korea Exchange and Financial Supervisory Service on Wednesday, overseas investors accounted for 38.1 percent in total market capitalization of the country’s main Kospi market in 2019, surging from 4.9 percent in 1992 when the market was first opened to foreign capital.

They held 561 trillion won ($483 billion) worth local stocks as of the end of 2019, up from 4.14 trillion won in 1992.

While the Kospi market grew 3.5 times from 624 in 1992 to 2,197 at the end of 2019 and its market value expanded 17.4-fold from 85 trillion won to 1,476 trillion won, foreign investors’ annual profits from their investments in Korean stocks surged around 35-fold from 2.7 trillion won to 96 trillion won, according to data from Shinyoung Securities. The figure could go up to 110 trillion won when including total dividend payouts for full 2019 that will be disclosed in April.

Over the last 28 years, there were only three years when foreign investors underperformed the growth of the Kospi market.

The latest trend has stoked concerns over the susceptibility of the Korean market to foreign capital flight and foreigners becoming the sole gainers in the Korean market.

By Ahn Gap-sung and Choi Mira

[ⓒ Pulse by Maeil Business Newspaper & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]