South Korea’s daily foreign exchange turnover that surged to a record high in the first quarter on heated demand for greenback eased in the April-June period amid reduced foreign exchange rate volatility and slowed outflow of foreign funds from the local stock market.

According to data released by the Bank of Korea on Tuesday, daily foreign exchange turnover in the second quarter averaged $52.02 billion, down 12.4 percent from an all-time high of $59.37 billion in the previous three-month period.

Average daily turnover of spots declined 3.8 percent on quarter to $20.32 billion in the second quarter, while foreign exchange derivatives dropped 17.1 percent to $31.7 billion.

Daily turnover by local lenders dropped 5.8 percent on quarter to $24.57 billion in the April-June period while that of local branches of foreign banks declined 17.6 percent to $27.45 billion.

The BOK said that the demand for foreign exchange derivative transactions slowed amid less foreign exchange fluctuation in the second quarter versus the first quarter and a drop in the outflow of foreign stock investment funds.

The daily average volatility rate was 5.5 won per a U.S. dollar in the second quarter compared with 8 won in the first quarter. Foreign investors also net sold $8.03 billion in Korean stocks in the second quarter, narrowed from $13.33 billion sell-off in the previous quarter.

By Lee Eun-joo

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