SEOUL, Jan. 13 (Xinhua) -- Foreign investors bought South Korean stocks for the first time in five months last month, while foreign funds kept flowing out of the local bond market for the third consecutive month, financial watchdog data showed Monday.
Foreigners purchased a net 810 billion won (701 million U.S. dollars) worth of domestic listed stocks in December, turning into net buyers in five months since July, according to the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS).
British, French and Australian investors were net buyers in the local stock market, but investors from Japan, Singapore and the United States sold domestic shares.
Foreign holdings of local stocks amounted to 593.2 trillion won (513.5 billion U.S. dollars) as of the end of December, taking up 33.3 percent of the total market capitalization.
Meanwhile, offshore investors purchased a net 4 trillion won (3.5 billion U.S. dollars) worth of local listed bonds last month, but 6.5 trillion won (5.6 billion U.S. dollars) worth of debts matured in the month.
In total, 2.5 trillion won (2.1 billion U.S. dollars) worth of foreign capital flowed out of the domestic bond market in December, marking the foreign fund outflow for three straight months.
Foreign ownership of local bonds reached 123.7 trillion won (107 billion U.S. dollars) as of end-December, accounting for 6.8 percent of the total listed bonds valuation.
