Korea’s stock market continued to see an inflow of overseas capital, hitting a record of 35 straight days of foreign investment in Seoul shares, according to the Korea Exchange on Thursday.
A last-minute bipartisan deal over the U.S. federal debt-ceiling that also ended a government shutdown spurred foreign funds into Asia’s fourth largest economy where the benchmark KOSPI rose 0.29 percent to 2,040.61.
The KOSPI surpassed 2050 points during intraday trading. Retail and institutional investors continued their selling mode, while foreign investors purchased additional shares worth some 280 billion won ($260 million) on Thursday.
Foreign investors net purchased Korean stocks worth over 12 trillion won over the last 35 consecutive days, breaking the market’s previous record of 34 straight days of foreign equity investment set in 1998.
Most of the overseas funds were from the U.S., which invested in Korean stocks worth some 6 trillion won between July and September this year.
Korea’s relatively strong fundamentals, and rosier and stable growth outlook compared with other emerging markets in Asia such as India and Indonesia, have driven foreign investors to reallocate their funds to Asia’s fourth largest economy.
Analysts expect that the stock market will undergo corrections going forward, but that foreign investors will remain attracted to Korea as an alternative investment destination to other Asian economies.
By Park Hyong-ki (
hkp@heraldcorp.com)
