The turnover in overseas stock trade settled by South Korean nationals in the first six months of this year hit a new half-year record, surging more than 63 percent from six months ago as local investors’ appetite for foreign stocks has stayed avid.

Korean investors’ buying and selling of foreign securities amounted to $207.7 billion in the January-June period, according to Korea Securities Depository on Monday. The figure is the largest half-year level since data compilation in 2011.

The settlement for U.S. stocks reached $193.97 billion, up 67.5 percent from six months ago, which accounted for a lion’s share of 93.4 percent of the total offshore stock transactions, followed by Hong Kong with $8.31 billion, China with $1.93 billion, Japan with $1.52 billion and Germany with $604 million.

Top on the list of settlement amounts were U.S. hot stocks such as Tesla, GameStop, and Apple.

U.S. electric vehicle titan Tesla Motors attracted $17.78 billion from South Korean investors between January and June, down 7.8 percent from the end of last year, with net purchase falling 32.4 percent to $1.71 billion.

Settlement amounts of large-cap stocks like Apple, Amazon, and Nvidia declined while social media-driven meme stocks GameStop and AMC entered the top 10 foreign stocks purchased.

The outstanding deposits for foreign securities accounts held by Korean nationals totaled $88.92 billion as of the end of June, up 23.1 percent from the end of last year. Their ownership in foreign stocks expanded 39.9 percent to $65.88 billion, while investment in bonds slipped 8.4 percent to $23.04 billion.

Top stocks in terms of retention amount included Tesla ($9.23 billion), Apple ($3.95 billion), Amazon ($1.89 billion), Nvidia ($1.5 billion), and Alphabet A ($1.39 billion).

By Lee Soo-min

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