[THE INVESTOR] Foreign investors increased their ownership of South Korean shares to a record high over the past four months in September.

Offshore investors bought a net 1.63 trillion won (US$1.46 billion) worth of listed South Korean shares last month, marking the fourth consecutive month of net purchases, according to the data by the Financial Supervisory Service.

Their cumulative net purchases reached 11.1 trillion won in the first nine months of the year, raising their ownership of listed stocks to 30.5 percent of the total market value as of end-September, unchanged from the previous month. 

As of the end of last month, the outstanding amount of listed stocks owned by foreigners came to 470.75 trillion won, close to the record high of 470.89 trillion won posted in April last year.

Net purchases by European and US investors stood at a combined 2.2 trillion won in September, while investors from Asian countries sold a net 600 billion won.

(theinvestor@heraldcorp.com)