Foreign stock buying slows down in Nov.

All News 12:00 December 13, 2017

SEOUL, Dec. 13 (Yonhap) -- Foreign investors bought South Korean stocks at a slower pace in November, but they turned to net sellers in the bond market amid security jitters and profit-taking, the central bank said Wednesday.

Foreigners purchased US$450 million worth of local stocks last month, down sharply from $2.8 billion in the previous month, according to the Bank of Korea (BOK).

In the bond market, they offloaded $1.41 billion in November, compared with a $650 million purchase in October.

Foreigners have been low key in the South Korean financial market since August when they sold stocks and bonds worth $3.25 billion, marking the first month of sell-offs since November 2016.

They remained net sellers in September as tensions spiked on the Korean Peninsula following North Korea's sixth and most powerful nuclear test and a series of ballistic missile tests in recent months.

Meanwhile, volatility in South Korea's currency markets expanded slightly in November from a month earlier amid a weakening U.S. dollar trend.

The session-over-session changes in the dollar-won exchange rates averaged 0.36 percent in November, compared with 0.29 percent a month earlier, the BOK said.

On average, the Korean won posted 4.8 won in daily value changes against the U.S. dollar last month, widening from 4.3 won tallied in the previous month, it said.

The won finished at 1,093.3 won against the greenback on Dec. 8, compared with 1,088.2 won at the end of November, the BOK said.

The credit default swaps premium for foreign exchange stabilization bonds came to 66 basis points in October, down from 71 basis points a month earlier, the bank added.