Foreign investors make up 38 percent of Kospi
Foreign investors continue to maintain a strong hold on the Korean stock market, the nation’s financial watchdog announced yesterday.According to the Financial Supervisory Commission, foreign investor shareholding accounted for 38 percent of aggregated stock value on the benchmark Kospi index at the end of February.
In terms of monetary value, of 696 trillion won ($742 billion) in total stock value on the Kospi, foreigners held 264.2 trillion won.
Foreign stock ownership has been on a steady upswing since the late 1990s. The figure reached a peak in 2004 when foreigners accounted for 42 percent of the Kospi’s stock value, but slipped a bit in the following years as foreign investors engaged in some profit taking.
At the end of 2006, foreigners held investments worth $282.4 billion in the Kospi. The regulator’s study showed the foreign investment in the Kospi is the ninth highest total among 33 global stock indexes, and is the highest among emerging market indexes, including Taiwan, Indonesia, Thailand and Brazil. Chinese stocks were not part of the study.
The number of overseas investors has also risen, from just under 17,000 in 2004 to about 20,000 in February.
The agency credited foreign investor buying with helping Korean stocks recover after the financial crisis in the late 1990s. From 1998 to 2002, foreigners posted 25.4 trillion won in net purchasing, and recorded 26.7 trillion won more in net purchasing over the next two years. In the first two months of 2007, net purchasing by foreigners was 1.6 trillion won.
By Yoo Jee-ho Staff Writer [jeeho@joongang.co.kr]
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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