Foreigners net sold 114 trillion won in Korean stocks by May, 10 times last year's amount

Foreign investors offloaded a net 47.01 trillion won ($39.5 billion) of South Korean stocks in May, extending their selling streak to a fifth consecutive month. This significant outflow from the equity market occurred despite a strong performance in the benchmark KOSPI index.

However, the total value of foreign investors' holdings in South Korean stocks surged to a record 2852.3 trillion won by the end of May. This increase, up by 730.9 trillion won from the previous month, is attributed to the sharp rise in stock prices. The KOSPI index climbed past 8000 points last month, prompting some investors to realize profits. The proportion of foreign holdings in the total market capitalization also reached an all-time high of 35.3%.

Geographically, North America led the net selling, with investors from the region offloading 33.2 trillion won. Europe followed with 7.4 trillion won in net sales. The United States accounted for over half of the total net sales, selling 28.86 trillion won worth of stocks. Canada also saw net sales of 4.27 trillion won. Conversely, Norway and Hong Kong were net buyers, investing 2.29 trillion won and 2.13 trillion won, respectively.

In the bond market, foreign investors continued their net buying trend for the second consecutive month. In May, they net purchased 11.715 trillion won of listed bonds and received 2.924 trillion won in maturing investments, resulting in a total net investment of 8.79 trillion won. By the end of May, foreign holdings in listed bonds stood at 333.6 trillion won, an increase of 8.4 trillion won from the prior month, representing 11.7% of the total outstanding listed bonds.