Foreign investors sell 19 trillion won in Korean stocks in September, return to net selling after a month

[Financial News] Foreign investors sold more than 19 trillion won worth of domestically listed stocks last month, returning to net selling after a month. More than 7 trillion won also flowed out of bonds, bringing the combined net withdrawal from stocks and bonds to over 26 trillion won.
According to the “September 2026 Trends in Foreign Securities Investment,” released by the Financial Supervisory Service on the 30th, foreign investors net sold 19.116 trillion won worth of domestically listed stocks last month. They net sold 17.453 trillion won worth on the KOSPI market and 1.663 trillion won worth on the KOSDAQ market.
By region, Europe recorded net sales of 10.3 trillion won, while the Americas and Asia also recorded net sales of 4.9 trillion won and 1.7 trillion won, respectively. The Middle East recorded net purchases of 100 billion won.
By country, the United Kingdom had the largest net sales, selling 6.9 trillion won worth. The United States also recorded net sales of 3.9 trillion won. By contrast, Luxembourg and Ireland recorded net purchases of 1 trillion won and 800 billion won, respectively.
At the end of last month, foreign investors held 2,296 trillion won worth of domestically listed stocks, up 15.4 trillion won from the previous month. This amounted to 34.8% of total market capitalization. U.S. investors held 1,006.9 trillion won, accounting for 43.9% of all foreign holdings. Europe and Asia held 680.2 trillion won and 313.4 trillion won, respectively.
In the bond market, foreign investors made net purchases of 127 billion won worth of listed bonds, but 7.695 trillion won worth of bonds matured and were repaid, resulting in a net withdrawal of 7.569 trillion won. Foreign investors’ net withdrawals from bonds continued for a second consecutive month.
By region, Asia made net investments of 2.7 trillion won, while Europe recorded net withdrawals of 6.7 trillion won. Funds totaling 1.2 trillion won and 800 billion won also flowed out of the Middle East and the Americas, respectively.
By bond type, foreign investors recorded net withdrawals of 4.8 trillion won from government bonds and 2.7 trillion won from special bonds. By remaining maturity, they made net investments of 2.4 trillion won and 1.8 trillion won, respectively, in bonds with maturities of at least five years and from one year to less than five years, but recorded net withdrawals of 11.8 trillion won from bonds with maturities of less than one year.
At the end of last month, foreign investors held 322.9 trillion won worth of listed bonds, down 7.4 trillion won from the previous month. This represented 11.2% of outstanding listed bonds. Foreign holdings of Korean listed securities, including stocks and bonds, totaled 2,618.8 trillion won.

[email protected] Lee Jeong-hwa Reporter