Foreign investors buy Korean stocks, bonds in October

Foreigners snapped up around 2.63 trillion won ($2.33 billion) worth of South Korean equities and debts in October amid softening concerns over a global financial meltdown, data showed Wednesday.

Overseas investors picked up a net 1.04 trillion won of equities, raising their share holdings to 367.87 trillion won as of October, compared with 339.1 trillion won in the previous month, according to the data by the Financial Supervisory Service.

The October rebound halted their two-month selling streak that amounted to around 7.24 trillion won. Foreign stock selling had sharply increased following the first-ever credit downgrade of the United States on Aug. 5 and persistent eurozone woes.

The financial regulator said the rebound in stock purchases came as European investors eased their selling and U.S. investors returned to net buying.

Selling by European investors reached 375.7 billion won, shrinking sharply to almost one-tenth of that in August and one-third of that in September.

By country, Singapore was the largest net buyer with 492.1 billion won, followed by Britain with 306.9 billion won and the U.S. with 268 billion won.

Meanwhile, bond purchases also swung to positive territory as foreign investors picked up a net 1.59 trillion won of local debts, the FSS said.

Foreign investors had offloaded a net 2.5 billion won worth of local bonds in September, breaking their seven-month net investment.

U.S. investors were the largest bond buyers with 788.1 billion won, followed by Malaysia with 508.7 billion won and China with 376.3 billion won. The latter two extended their buying streak to a tenth straight month.

Foreigners’ bond holdings reached a record 86.68 trillion won, up from 85.1 trillion won in September, according to the FSS. 

(Yonhap News)