A dealer stands before a giant screen showing real-time transaction of stock market prices and the won-dollar exchange rate at a dealing room of Hana Bank’s headquarters in central Seoul, Thursday. Yonhap
By Yi Whan-woo
Foreign investors unloaded more than 7 trillion won ($5.46 billion) worth of Korean stocks last month, driven by the global economic uncertainties that have accelerated the exodus of offshore investors.
According to the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS), overseas investors sold a net 7.36 trillion won worth of stocks in Seoul last month.
This marked the largest sell-off since August 2021 when the reading was at 7.81 trillion won.
The sell-off also occurred for the second month in a row. In August, foreign investors net sold 2.51 trillion won worth of listed shares, ending their nine-month buying streak.
The FSS said overseas investors net sold 7.9 trillion won worth of stocks listed on the benchmark KOSPI, and net purchased 545 billion won worth of listed shares on the secondary bourse Kosdaq.
Correspondingly, the shares held by foreign investors in September amounted to 746.9 trillion won, representing a 55.1 trillion won fall from a month earlier.
The September amount accounted for 28 percent of total market capitalization, sliding 1.2 percentage points from 29.2 percent tallied in August.
By nations, investors from France net purchased the largest amount of 800 billion won, compared to those from the United States who unloaded 2.8 trillion won.
The FSS assessed offshore investors’ selling spree is linked to geopolitical risks in the Middle East, the U.S central bank’s rate-cutting cycle and growing concerns over the growth of the artificial intelligence (AI) industry.
Industry sources remained cautious over whether the sell-off will slow down, noting the aforementioned risks are anticipated to adversely affect the Seoul stock market.
Concerning the Korean bond market, offshore investors on the other hand net purchased 3.63 trillion won worth of listed bonds last month as they became net buyers of local bonds for the second consecutive month.
They held bonds worth 263.4 trillion won in September, up 4.1 trillion won from August and accounting for 10.3 percent of total listed bonds in Korea.
