Foreign investors bought South Korean stocks for seven straight months amid expectations for the new government's economic policy, financial watchdog data showed Monday.
Foreign purchase of local listed stocks reached 1.76 trillion won (1.53 billion U.S. dollars) in June, according to the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS).
Foreigners were net buyers for seven months from December last year. For the first six months of this year, their purchase of domestic stocks amounted to 10.89 trillion won.
The continued purchase was attributable to the launch of the Moon Jae-in government, which was inaugurated on May 10 through the country's first presidential by-election.
On his campaign trail, President Moon advocated an income-based growth policy by creating more decent jobs and narrowing income gap between regular and irregular workers. If it succeeds, the lackluster private consumption would be boosted, helping prop up the faltering economy together with the recovering exports.
U.S. investors were the biggest buyers of local stocks last month, purchasing a net 1.8 trillion won worth of shares. It was followed by French and Irish investors who bought shares worth 700 billion won and 300 billion won each.
Foreign holdings of local stocks totaled 597.7 trillion won as of end-June, marking the largest in history. The holdings accounted for 33.1 percent of the total market capitalization.
Meanwhile, foreign ownership of local listed bonds reached 103.8 trillion won as of end-June, taking up 6.3 percent of the total listed bonds. (1 U.S. dollar equals to 1148.75 South Korean Won)
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