[ Investment > FPI Report ]

orea Stock Exchange(KSE) Foreign buyers went on a spree again in July. Gross buying by foreigners amounted to 9.035 trillion won against net sales of 6.062 trillion won for a net buy of 2.974 trillion won, accounting for 14.6 percent of all transactions. Coupled with a 6.5-percent rise in the Korea Stock Exchange Index (KOSPI) from 669.9 points to 713.52 points, foreign ownership increased by 12.218 trillion won, or 13.5 percent, to 111.527 trillion won. As a proportion of the total, foreign ownership on the KOSPI rose by 1.9 percent to 37.5 percent. The biggest net investors were from the United States (1.8 trillion won) and Britain (507 billion won); the biggest net sellers were from the Netherlands (72 billion won) and Ireland (31 billion won).

  The top-five net-purchased stocks were Samsung Electronics, LG Electronics, Kookmin Bank and Samsung Electronics (preferred). Top-five net sold stocks were SK Telecom, NC Soft, LG Chemicals, Samsung Securities and Korea Exchange Bank.

   Korea Security Dealers Automated Quotation (KOSDAQ)Foreigners were also net buyers on the KOSDAQ for the third straight month in July, acquiring 1.024 trillion won worth of stock and unloading 742.5 billion for a net buy of 282.3 billion won to account for 2.7 percent of all transactions. Despite a 0.42-percent decline in the KOSDAQ index (49.75 points to 49.33 points), the value of foreign investment grew by 11.0 percent to 449.1 billion won in July to 4.887 trillion won. Overseas ownership on the KOSDAQ ended the month at 11.4 percent of the total, an increase of 1.0 percent. Biggest net buyers on the KOSDAQ were from the United States (138.8 billion won) and the Cayman Is. (72 billion won); biggest net sellers were from Malaysia (11.6 billion won) and the Virgin Is. (4.5 billion won).

   Bonds Foreigners were net sellers of bonds in July, buying 119.6 billion worth, but unloading 645.9 billion for a net sell of 526.3 billion won. Foreigners ended the month holding 955.6 billion won worth of bonds, a reduction of 485.1 billion, or 33.67 percent. Government bonds accounted for 30.4 percent of foreign holdings and corporate bonds, 45.3 percent.

   Futures Foreigners purchased/liquidated 368,360 stock price futures contracts and sold/redeemed 381,493 to conclude a total of 749,853 contracts in July. This amounted to 7.9 percent of trading in this derivative, a fall of 0.7 percent on the month. Foreigners also purchased/liquidated 12,015,229 stock price index options and sold/redeemed 11,544,929 to conclude a total of 23,560,158, or 5.8 percent of the total, a decline of 0.3 percent from June.

   Investor Profile Registered investors increased in number by 79 in July, institutional investors rising by 60 to 6,476 (65.1 percent of the total) and individual investors by 19 to 5,134 (34.9 percent). Among institutional investors, 6,476 (44.0 percent) were registered by investment companies, 923 (6.3 percent) by pension funds, 405 (2.8 percent) by securities companies and 393 (2.7 percent) by banks. By nationality, the United States had the most registered (5,632, 38.3 percent) followed by Britain (1,274, 8.7 percent) and Japan (1,197, 8.1 percent).