SEOUL, May 29 (Xinhua) -- Foreign investors sold South Korean stocks for a fourth straight month amid the lingering Middle East tensions, financial watchdog data showed Friday.
Offshore investors offloaded a net 4.05 trillion won (2.7 billion U.S. dollars) worth of domestic listed stocks in April, continuing to sell off since January, according to the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS).
Foreigners remained net sellers in the main bourse KOSPI, while they turned into net sellers in the smaller KOSDAQ market.
Foreign holdings of local stocks totaled 2,121.4 trillion won (1.41 trillion dollars) at the end of April, taking up 32.5 percent of the total market capitalization.
Overseas investors snapped up a net 8.09 trillion won (5.4 billion dollars) worth of domestic listed bonds last month.
Given the maturing debt worth 7.65 trillion won (5.1 billion dollars), the foreign net investment in the local bond market reached 0.44 trillion won (293.2 million dollars).
The foreign ownership of domestic listed bonds came to 325.2 trillion won (216.7 billion dollars) at the end of April, accounting for 11.6 percent of the total listed bonds. ■
