Foreign Investors Take Hit, But Are Still Powerful Force

The total value of Korean shares held by foreign investors stood at 63.6 trillion won ($48 billion) at the end of last month, down 7.1 percent from a month earlier, according to the Korea Stock Exchange on Wednesday.

The exchange said the fall was in line with the 9.5-percent decline in the Korea Composite Stock Price Index, despite foreign investors' purchase of shares with a net value of 41.1 billion during the 30-day period.

Still, foreigners held 30.2 percent of the market's total value of 208.7 trillion won at the end of March, up 0.6 percentage point from February.

In the Kosdaq market, overseas investors' holdings were valued at 3.8 trillion won at the end of March, down 8.8 percent from the previous month. They invested 42.2 billion won last month, but a 10.9-percent drop in the Kosdaq composite index cut into the total value of their share holdings.

Foreign holdings of local bonds fell to 532.1 billion won at the end of last month, a decline of 10.4 percent from February.

Foreigners held a short position on the futures market through March for the third consecutive month.

They unloaded 193,699 contracts on the futures market last month and purchased 163,976 contracts, resulting in net selling of 29,723 contracts.

by Chung Sun-gu