SEOUL, June 26 (Xinhua) -- Foreign investors sold South Korean stocks for a fifth consecutive month to take profits from the recent stock rally, financial watchdog data showed Friday.
Offshore investors dumped a net 47.02 trillion won (30.5 billion U.S. dollars) worth of domestic listed stocks in May, continuing to sell off since January, according to the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS).
Foreigners remained net sellers in the main bourse KOSPI, but they turned into net buyers in the smaller KOSDAQ market.
Overseas investors sold stocks in the KOSPI to lock in gains from the recent market surge.
Fueled by a booming semiconductor industry and massive earnings growth, the KOSPI surged to historic highs this year despite high market volatility and foreign selling.
Foreign holdings of local stocks totaled 2,852.3 trillion won (1.85 trillion dollars) at the end of May, taking up 35.3 percent of the total market capitalization.
Overseas investors snapped up a net 11.71 trillion won (7.6 billion dollars) worth of local listed bonds in May.
With the maturing debt worth 2.92 trillion won (1.9 billion dollars), the foreign net investment in the domestic bond market reached 8.79 trillion won (5.7 billion dollars).
The foreign ownership of domestic listed bonds came to 333.6 trillion won (216.3 billion dollars) at the end of May, accounting for 11.7 percent of the total listed bonds. ■