Seoul [South Korea], December 7: Foreign investors bought South Korean stocks in four months after the government's ban on stock short-selling, financial watchdog data showed Thursday.
Foreigners purchased a net 3.3 trillion won (2.5 billion U.S. dollars) worth of local listed stocks in November after dumping shares for the past three months, according to the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS).
Offshore investors turned into net buyers both in the benchmark KOSPI and the tech-savvy KOSDAQ markets.
It came after the financial authorities prohibited the short-selling on all listed stocks earlier this month.
Short-selling refers to the sale of stocks by borrowing them in anticipation of price fall, before repaying the borrowed shares when the price goes down. It has been seen as one of the main culprits for the stock market rout.
Foreign holdings of domestic listed stocks totaled 692.2 trillion won (524.3 billion dollars) at the end of November, taking up 26.9 percent of the total market capitalization.
Overseas investors bought a net 5.37 trillion won (4.1 billion dollars) worth of local listed bonds in November.
Given the maturing debts worth 3.14 trillion won (2.4 billion dollars), the foreign net disinvestment in the local bond market stood at 2.23 trillion won (1.7 billion dollars) last month.
Foreign ownership of domestic bonds amounted to 244.1 trillion won (184.9 billion dollars) at the end of November, accounting for 9.8 percent of the total listed bonds.
Source: Xinhua
