South Korea's Financial Supervisory Service published its August 2025 statistics on foreign investors’ trading in Korea’s listed stocks and bonds. Foreign investors bought a net KRW57.0bn of listed stocks and sold a net KRW621.0bn of listed bonds, extending net stock purchases to four consecutive months while turning into net bond sellers for the first time in seven months. End-August cumulative foreign holdings totalled KRW904.8trn in listed stocks, equal to 27.5% of total market capitalisation, and KRW306.7trn in listed bonds, equal to 11.3% of total listed bonds. Net stock buying was driven by the US (KRW1,374bn), Ireland (KRW398bn) and Luxembourg (KRW267bn), while the UK (KRW-1,638bn) and Australia (KRW-673bn) were the largest net sellers; by region, the Americas recorded net purchases of KRW1,245bn, versus net sales of KRW276bn in Asia and KRW261bn in Europe. For bonds, net sales reflected outflows from Asia (KRW-2,405bn) despite net purchases from Europe (KRW1,221bn) and the Americas (KRW640bn); by bond type, foreign investors were net sellers of Korean Treasury Bonds (KRW-202bn), agency bonds (KRW-420bn) and Monetary Stabilization Bonds (KRW-40bn), and by remaining maturity net sales were concentrated in bonds with less than one year to maturity (KRW-3,561bn) offset by net buying in bonds with more than five years to maturity (KRW2,095bn).
South Korea Financial Supervisory Service 2025-09-12
South Korea's Financial Supervisory Service reports August 2025 foreign investors’ net buying of KRW57.0bn in listed stocks and net selling of KRW621.0bn in listed bonds
In August 2025, foreign investors were net buyers of KRW57.0bn in listed stocks and net sellers of KRW621.0bn in listed bonds, according to the South Korea Financial Supervisory Service. Cumulative foreign holdings at the end of August were KRW904.8trn in stocks and KRW306.7trn in bonds. The US, Ireland, and Luxembourg led net stock purchases, while the UK and Australia were major net sellers; bond sales were driven by outflows from Asia, with net buying in bonds with over five years to maturity.