Foreigners’ bond investment hits 27-month high

Foreign investors were found to have actively bought bonds in the South Korean market last month, the Financial Supervisory Service said Tuesday.

The foreigners’ investment in Korean bonds was estimated at 3.19 trillion won ($2.9 billion) in May, marking the highest in 27 months since they bought bonds worth 3.5 trillion won in February 2013.

Their net buying of local bonds came to 4.4 trillion won, up 700 billion won from a month earlier.

By investor nationality, Switzerland topped the list with net purchase of 1.1 trillion won, followed by Luxembourg with 1 trillion won and China with 403 billion won.

FSS data also showed that foreigners also net bought stocks worth 1.3 trillion won.

They net bought local equities for the fourth consecutive month. Investors from the U.S. net bought Korean stocks worth 1 trillion won, followed by Ireland with 209 billion won, Singapore with 495 billion won and the U.K. with 337 billion won.

By Kim Yon-se (kys@heraldcorp.com)