Foreign investors net buyers of Korean stocks for 5th straight month

Foreign investors bought more South Korean stocks in February, extending their buying spree to five months.

The Financial Supervisory Service of Korea said on Thursday that foreigners bought a net 1.1 trillion won ($835 million) of listed stocks last month. They bought 535 billion won of stocks on the main Kospi market and 634 billion won on the smaller Kosdaq market.

Foreign buying slowed down from January when they snapped up 6.1 trillion won of stocks.

Foreigners held 635.1 trillion won of listed stocks at the end of February, down 900 billion won from a month earlier. That was 26.7% of the total market value.

In the bond market, foreigners sold more than they bought. They sold a net 778 billion won of listed bonds in February. They bought 2.8 trillion won and redeemed 3.6 trillion won.

Foreigners owned 221.4 trillion won of listed bonds at the end of February, down 600 billion won from January. That was 9.2% of the total.

Write to Eui-Myung Park at uimyung@hankyung.com