Foreigners invest quarterly record of $11.7 billion in Korean stock market

Financial Supervisory Service Gov. Lee Bok-hyun speaks in a conference in central Seoul on April 5, 2024. [NEWS1]

Foreign investors net purchased 15.8 trillion won ($11.67 billion) in the Korean stock market in the first quarter, driven by the popularity of Samsung Electronics and Hyundai Motor shares.

Foreigners net purchased 4.22 trillion won on the Kospi and 887 billion won on the secondary Kosdaq in March, remaining net buyers since November, according to data by the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS), as they logged the largest quarterly purchasing amount since data was first compiled in 1998.

By region, 3.3 trillion won was net purchased in Europe in March, 1.2 trillion won was from the United States and 700 billion won was from Asia. Canada posted net sales of 1 trillion won and Saudi Arabia of 600 billion won.

Foreign investors held 820.1 trillion won worth of listed stocks in Korea as of the end of the month, accounting for 29 percent of the total market capitalization.

In the January-March period, they net acquired 5.5 trillion won in shares of Samsung Electronics, 2.14 trillion won in Hyundai Motor and 1.76 trillion won in SK hynix.

The FSS said that sales were propelled by the introduction of the government's ambitious corporate value-up program intended to resolve the "Korea discount," referring to the chronic undervaluation of local stocks.

The program encourages companies to improve the transparency of their governance structures and shareholder return policies.

Foreign investors net purchased 5.1 trillion won worth of listed bonds and sold a net 5.85 trillion won in March.

Their bond holdings accounted for 9.6 percent of total listed holdings at 244.3 trillion won in March, down 4.5 trillion won from the previous month.

They net sold 5.2 trillion won in treasury bonds and 1.1 trillion won in monetary stabilization bonds issued by the Bank of Korea to control the money supply in the market.

BY JIN MIN-JI [jin.minji@joongang.co.kr]