As South Korean individuals looked eagerly beyond the local market for bigger returns from investment, turnover in trading overseas stocks renewed a monthly high of $18.6 billion last month.

Korean investors traded $18.6 billion worth of offshore stocks in June, according to Korea Securities Depository on Monday.

Koreans’ offshore stock trade that averaged around $5.5 billion until the beginning of the year shot up to $13.8 billion in March as local market took a dive amid a surge in the cases of COVID-19.

Turnover in trading foreign stocks stood around $12.4 billion in April and May.

The appetite for foreign stocks is avid when compared to the total trade turnover of 287.6 trillion ($240 billion) at the Korea’s main bourse Kospi in June.

The offshore data mostly involves retailers while the Kospi number includes all investors – institutions, foreigners and individuals.

Koreans’ investment in offshore securities was made mostly in the U.S. The trade of American stocks accounted for 91.4 percent of the Koreans’ total offshore stock transaction in June, up from 77.6 percent in January.

Koreans’ favorite foreign stocks, based on outstanding deposit amount, were Amazon.com, Tesla, and Microsoft, with over $10 billion deposited in accounts for each stock.

Market experts forecast Korean individual investors will go more aggressive on investing in offshore stocks due to Korean government’s plan of imposing tax on profits above 20 million won from sale of local stocks per year in 2023.

By Park In-hye, Ahn Gab-seong, and Cho Jeehyun

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