SEOUL, March 27 (Xinhua) -- Foreign investors sold South Korean stocks for the second consecutive month to take short-term profits, financial watchdog data showed Friday.
Offshore investors offloaded a net 19.56 trillion won (13.0 billion U.S. dollars) worth of local listed stocks in February, continuing to sell off since January, according to the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS).
Foreigners turned into net sellers in the main bourse KOSPI, while they remained net sellers in the smaller KOSDAQ market.
Foreign holdings of local listed stocks totaled 2,025.5 trillion won at the end of February, taking up 32.6 percent of the total market capitalization.
Overseas investors snapped up a net 10.69 trillion won worth of local listed bonds in February.
Given the maturing debt worth 3.26 trillion won, the foreign net investment in the local bond market reached 7.43 trillion won last month.
The foreign ownership of domestic listed bonds amounted to 337.3 trillion won at the end of February, accounting for 12.0 percent of the total listed bonds. (1 won equals 0.00066 U.S. dollars) ■
