Foreign investors net purchase Korean stocks for 4th month in Aug.

SEOUL, Sept. 12 (Yonhap) -- Foreign investors net purchased Korean stocks for the fourth consecutive month in August amid a strong performance of the local stock market, data showed Friday.

Offshore investors bought a net 57 billion won (US$41 million) worth of local stocks last month, following a net purchase of 3.41 trillion won the previous month, according to the data from the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS).

Foreigners had been net sellers of Korean stocks for nine consecutive months through April but turned to net buying in May.

Following their purchase in August, offshore investors owned 904.8 trillion won worth of local stocks, or 27.5 percent of total market capitalization.

By country, investors from the United States were the top buyers, net purchasing 1.4 trillion won worth of shares, followed by those from Ireland with 0.4 trillion won, according to the data.

In the local bond market, foreign investors purchased a net 4.42 trillion won worth of bonds last month, marking the seventh consecutive month of net buying.

Their holdings of local bonds had come to 306.7 trillion won as of end-August, accounting for 11.3 percent of listed bonds here, the data showed.

sam@yna.co.kr
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