[THE INVESTOR] The value of South Korea’s listed shares owned by foreign investors increased more than 10 percent this year, as investors loaded up on large caps, data showed on Aug. 16.

Offshore investors held 464.1 trillion won (US$422 billion) worth of shares traded on the main bourse KOSPI and secondary KOSDAQ market as of Aug. 10, up 10.3 percent from 2015 and accounting for 30.56 percent of total market capitalization, according to the data by the Korea Exchange

The figure represents a 1.42 percentage point increase from the end of last year.



The gain was led by foreigners’ massive purchase of large-cap issues. Foreign investors owned 38.14 percent of large caps listed on the KOSPI, up 0.86 percentage point from the end of 2015.

(theinvestor@heraldcorp.com)