Foreign investors kept to buying position on South Korean stocks for two straight months last month, whereas appetite for the country’s debts subdued amid fast rises in interest rates in the U.S. and Europe.

According to the Financial Supervisory Service on Tuesday, offshore investors net purchased 3.95 trillion won ($2.87 billion) worth of Korean shares in August – 3.69 trillion won worth stocks on the main Kospi and 261 billion won worth on the secondary Kosdaq.

Foreigners were net sellers in Korean stock markets for the first six months but shifted position from July.

Investors from Europe net purchased 2.6 trillion won worth, those from America 1.5 trillion won worth, and the Middle East 0.3 trillion won worth. Asian investors sold off 0.2 trillion won worth.

Foreign holdings in Korean stocks reached 630.6 trillion won as of the end of August, making up 26.2 percent of the total market capitalization.

Americans held the largest amount of Korean shares worth 259.4 trillion won, accounting for 41.1 percent of the total foreign ownership. They were followed by Europeans with 188.8 trillion won (29.9 percent), Asians with 88.2 trillion won (14 percent), and investors from the Middle East with 20.9 trillion won (3.3 percent).

In the debt market, offshore investors turned net sellers in August, purchasing 4.62 trillion won worth of bonds and cashing out in bigger 6.47 trillion won worth upon maturity.

Foreign ownership in Korean bonds totaled 231.8 trillion won as of the end of last month, down 1.7 trillion won from a month ago. Their share in total debt market was 9.9 percent.

Investors from Asia held 103.5 trillion won in Korean bonds, or 44.6 percent of the total foreign ownership. Investors from Europe held 71.9 trillion won worth, or 31 percent.

Non-Koreans net invested 0.8 trillion won from holdings in government bonds but redeemed 3.2 trillion won from forex stabilization bonds. By maturity, they redeemed 5.6 trillion won in net from bonds dated less than a year while net investing 1.9 trillion won in bonds dated from one year to less than five years and 1.9 trillion won in bonds dated five years and longer.

By Lee Ha-yeon

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