Foreigners purchased a net 3.15 trillion won (2.4 billion U.S. dollars) worth of local listed stocks in December after snapping up 3.3 trillion won (2.5 billion dollars) worth of shares in the previous month, according to the Financial Supervisory Service.
Offshore investors remained net buyers both in the benchmark KOSPI and the tech-savvy KOSDAQ markets.
It came after the financial authorities prohibited short-selling on all listed stocks in early November.
Short-selling refers to the sale of stocks by borrowing them in anticipation of a price fall, before repaying the borrowed shares when the price goes down. It has been seen as one of the main culprits for a stock market rout.
Foreign holdings of domestic listed stocks totaled 739.4 trillion won (562.5 billion dollars) at the end of December, taking up 27.4 percent of the total market capitalization.
Overseas investors bought a net 4.53 trillion won (3.4 billion dollars) worth of local listed bonds in December.
Given the maturing debts worth 5.42 trillion won (4.1 billion dollars), the foreign net disinvestment in the local bond market stood at 890 billion won (680 million dollars) last month.
Foreign ownership of domestic bonds amounted to 242.9 trillion won (184.8 billion dollars) at the end of December, accounting for 9.7 percent of the total listed bonds.
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