Foreign Investors Net Sold 47 Trillion Won in Stocks in May, Net Invested 8.8 Trillion Won in Bonds

[Financial News] Foreign investors net sold more than 47 trillion won worth of domestic stocks last month, extending their selling streak to five consecutive months. In contrast, they net invested 8.8 trillion won in the listed bond market, led by government bonds, marking a second straight month of inflows. Despite the stock selloff, the market capitalization of local equities increased, pushing foreigners' holdings of listed stocks up by more than 730 trillion won from the previous month.
According to the Financial Supervisory Service's 'May Foreign Securities Investment Trends' released on the 26th, foreigners net sold 47.019 trillion won worth of listed stocks last month. They net sold 49.041 trillion won in the Korea Exchange Main Board, while net buying 2.022 trillion won in the KOSDAQ market.
By region, the Americas led the selling with net outflows of 33.185 trillion won. Europe recorded net outflows of 7.367 trillion won, the Middle East 1.06 trillion won, and Asia 100 billion won. By country, Norway topped the net buying list with 2.293 trillion won, followed by Hong Kong with 2.013 trillion won and France with 980 billion won. The United States, meanwhile, net sold 28.861 trillion won, Canada 4.271 trillion won, and Switzerland 2.45 trillion won.
As of the end of May, foreigners' holdings of listed stocks stood at 2,852.309 trillion won, up 730.945 trillion won from the previous month. Their share of total market capitalization rose 2.8 percentage points from the previous month to 35.3%. The increase came as the domestic stock market's total market capitalization expanded from 6,525.854 trillion won to 8,070.455 trillion won during the period.
Foreign capital continued to flow into the listed bond market. Foreign investors net bought 11.715 trillion won worth of listed bonds last month and received 2.924 trillion won in principal repayments, bringing total net investment to 8.791 trillion won. After turning to net investment in April, the market saw inflows for a second consecutive month.
By bond type, net investment was concentrated in government bonds, at 9.889 trillion won. At the end of May, foreigners held 315.934 trillion won in government bonds, accounting for 94.7% of total bond holdings. Holdings of Special Purpose Bonds came to 17.563 trillion won, or 5.3%.
At the end of May, foreigners' holdings of listed bonds totaled 333.586 trillion won, up 8.391 trillion won from the previous month. That accounted for 11.7% of the total listed bond balance. By region, Asia held 133.3 trillion won, or 40.0%, while Europe held 132 trillion won, or 39.6%.

elikim@fnnews.com Kim Mi-hee Reporter