Foreigners turn to selling local equities in 5 months

Foreigners turned net sellers of local equities for the first time in five months, mainly on profit-taking after consecutive net stock purchases in the Seoul market, the financial regulator said Sunday.

Overseas investors dumped a net 323 billion won (US$305.3 million) worth of local equities last month, turning from a net buying of 5.2 trillion won the previous month, according to the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS).

The value of their shares reached 442.6 trillion won at the end of November, with the proportion coming in at 32.9 percent, little changed from the previous month, the FSS said.

Foreigners' net buying had continued from July to October, driving the main bourse with upward momentum amid waning fear over an early U.S. stimulus tapering.

Last month, they turned to unload their shares as they opted to take profit from the recent gain of the KOSPI on the back of a sharp appreciation of the local currency in recent months.

The Korean won has risen about 7 percent to the U.S. dollar between June and September.

Saudi Arabia was the biggest seller of Korean stocks, offloading a net 500 billion won, followed by Luxembourg with a net 407.6 billion won, and Britain with a net 341 billion won.

But the U.S., Ireland and Canada made the top three that increased bets in Seoul shares, worth a combined net 1.1 trillion won, the FSS said.

Meanwhile, foreigners' holdings of local bonds totaled 95.1 trillion won as of end-November, down by 600 billion won from a month earlier, largely led by an outflow of such assets upon maturity.

Luxembourg took out a net 500 billion won, followed by Singapore with a net 400 billion won. In contrast, Switzerland and Israel invested a net 300 billion won and 200 billion won, respectively. (Yonhap news)