SEOUL, Sept. 18 (Xinhua) -- Foreign investors became net buyers of South Korean stocks for the first time in eight months, while shifting to a net outflow from the domestic bond market for the first time in four months, financial watchdog data showed Friday.
Offshore investors purchased a net 344 billion won (about 248.8 million U.S. dollars) worth of domestic listed stocks in August, according to the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS).
Foreigners shifted into net buyers in the main KOSPI market, but they offloaded shares in the tech-heavy KOSDAQ market.
Foreign holdings of local stocks totaled 2,280.6 trillion won at the end of August, taking up 34.8 percent of the total market capitalization.
Meanwhile, the domestic bond market saw net foreign outflows for the first time in four months.
Overseas investors dumped a net 3.94 trillion won worth of local listed bonds last month.
With maturing debt worth 801 billion won, net foreign disinvestment in the local bond market reached 4.74 trillion won.
The foreign ownership of domestic listed bonds stood at 330.3 trillion won at the end of August, accounting for 11.4 percent of all listed bonds in the country. ■
