Foreigners purchased a net 2.58 trillion won (2.2 billion U.S. dollars) worth of domestic stocks in April, turning into net buyers despite the country's lackluster economic downturn, according to the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS).
The country's real gross domestic product (GDP), adjusted for inflation, fell 0.3 percent in the first quarter from the previous quarter, but expectations ran high for the GDP to rebound in the following quarter on the government's efforts to reinvigorate the economy.
The government submitted a supplementary budget plan to the National Assembly, after distributing about 9 billion U.S. dollars of surplus revenue to local governments for regional economy-boosting projects.
Offshore investors made a net investment of 500 billion won (422 million U.S. dollars) in local listed bonds in April, remaining a net buyer for two months in a row.
The net investment means the amount of foreign net buying minus maturing debts.
Foreign ownership of local stocks reached 575.9 trillion won (486.3 billion U.S. dollars), or 32.4 percent of the total market capitalization, as of end April.
Foreign holdings of domestic bonds amounted to 112 trillion won (94.6 billion U.S. dollars), or 6.3 percent of the total listed bonds, at the end of last month.
Latest comments