SEOUL, Aug. 10 (Xinhua) -- Foreign investors turned into net buyers in the South Korean stock market for the first time in six months, financial watchdog data showed Monday.
Foreigners bought a net 582 billion won (490 million U.S. dollars) worth of domestic stocks in July, according to the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS).
Offshore investors had been net sellers for five straight months through June on worry about the economic fallout from the COVID-19 outbreak across the world.
European and Asian investors purchased local shares, but investors from the United States, Canada and the Middle East were net sellers in the local stock market.
Foreign holdings of domestic stocks amounted to 583.5 trillion won (491.3 billion U.S. dollars) as of the end of July, accounting for 30.8 percent of the total market capitalization.
Foreign net investment, or foreign net buying minus maturing debts, in the local bond market amounted to 2.24 trillion won (1.9 billion U.S. dollars) in July.
Foreigners were net buyers in the domestic bond market for the seventh consecutive month as the country's central bank lowered its target rate by 25 basis points to an all-time low of 0.50 percent in May after cutting it by 50 basis points.
Foreign ownership of local bonds reached 150.2 trillion won (126.5 billion U.S. dollars) as of end-July, taking up 7.5 percent of the total listed bonds. Enditem
