Foreign investors sell Korean stocks for 9th month in April

SEOUL, May 16 (Yonhap) -- Foreign investors sold South Korean stocks for the ninth consecutive month in April amid market routs caused by the U.S. tariff policies, data showed Friday.

Offshore investors sold a net 13.59 trillion won (US$9.71 billion) worth of local stocks last month, following a net sell-off of 1.64 trillion won the previous month, according to the data from the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS).

After the sell-off, foreigners owned 707.1 trillion won worth of local stocks, or 26.5 percent of total market capitalization.

By country, investors from Britain were the top net seller of local stocks, net offloading 8.9 trillion won worth of shares, followed by those from the United States with 1.5 trillion won.

Meanwhile, foreign investors purchased a net 11.26 trillion won worth of local bonds last month.

Their holdings of local bonds had come to 289.6 trillion won as of end-April, accounting for 10.9 percent of listed bonds here, the data showed.

sam@yna.co.kr
(END)