Foreign Investors' Net Investment of 9 Trillion KRW in Listed Bonds Last Month... Record High

[Asia Economy Reporter Ji Yeon-jin] Last month, foreign investors net sold listed stocks worth approximately 3.514 trillion KRW and purchased listed bonds worth 9.124 trillion KRW.

The Financial Supervisory Service announced on the 11th that in March, foreigners net purchased 14.712 trillion KRW of listed bonds and redeemed 5.588 trillion KRW at maturity, resulting in a net investment of 9.124 trillion KRW. As of the end of last month, foreigners' bond holdings amounted to 170.9 trillion KRW, an increase of 9.4 trillion KRW compared to the previous month. This corresponds to 8.1% of the outstanding listed bonds. The net investment amount and holdings of bonds by foreigners last month were at record-high levels following February.

Europe made the largest net investment by purchasing 3.6 trillion KRW, while Asia and the Middle East also made net investments of approximately 2.5 trillion KRW and 1 trillion KRW, respectively. The holdings were dominated by Asia, which accounted for 81.1 trillion KRW or 47.5% of the total foreign holdings.

Last month, foreigners' net investment in government bonds was 5.2 trillion KRW, and in Monetary Stabilization Bonds (Tonganchae) was 3.3 trillion KRW. Bonds with a remaining maturity of 1 to less than 5 years saw a net investment of 10.4 trillion KRW, and bonds with more than 5 years maturity had a net investment of 1.8 trillion KRW. Conversely, short-term bonds with less than 1 year maturity were net redeemed by approximately 3.1 trillion KRW. As of the end of last month, foreigners held 71.3 trillion KRW (41.7%) in bonds with 1 to less than 5 years remaining maturity, 51.5 trillion KRW (30.1%) in bonds with over 5 years maturity, and 48.1 trillion KRW (28.2%) in bonds with less than 1 year maturity.

On the other hand, foreigners net sold listed stocks worth 3.5149 trillion KRW in the same month. However, due to stock price increases, their holdings rose by 7.8 trillion KRW from the previous month to 805.3 trillion KRW. Foreign holdings accounted for 31.3% of the market capitalization, a decrease from 31.6% the previous month.

Europe and the Middle East made net purchases of 1.13 trillion KRW and 700 billion KRW, respectively, while Asia (-3.7 trillion KRW) and the Americas (-1 trillion KRW) made net sales. Notably, by country, Singapore net sold approximately 3.8 trillion KRW, and the United States sold 900 billion KRW. However, the holdings of domestic listed stocks by U.S. investors amounted to 332.4 trillion KRW, accounting for 41.3% of the total foreign holdings.