Foreigners net purchased more than 10 trillion won ($9.4 billion) worth of stocks listed on the Korean bourses last year amid solid earnings by local companies amid growing exports, government data showed Monday.

Offshore investors acquired listed shares valued at 10.2 trillion won, the Financial Supervisory Service said.

Foreigners poured money into Samsung Electronics Co. and other information technology firms.
 

The purchase by US investors reached 13.2 trillion won, while Europeans net bought 1.4 trillion won in stocks.

Investors from Asia and the Middle East sold 3.3 trillion won and 1 trillion won, respectively, worth of shares more than they bought.

For last month, foreigners net sold 2.05 trillion won worth of stocks.

They net sold 2.6 trillion won worth of stocks on the main KOSPI bourse and net purchased 500 billion won worth of stocks on the tech-heavy secondary KOSDAQ market during the one-month period.

Foreigners held 635 trillion won of Korean stocks as of the end of last month, accounting for 32.9 % of the total market cap of the country's bourses.

Britain topped the list at 48.3 trillion won, or 7.6 %, followed by Luxembourg at 41 trillion won, or 6.4 %.

The net purchase of Korean bonds by foreigners, meanwhile, reached 9.4 trillion won last year.

Asian and Middle Eastern investors net bought 6.6 trillion won and 4.7 trillion won, respectively, of Korean debts each last year.

Foreigners held 98.5 trillion won in Korean bonds as of the end of last month, representing 5.9 % of the total. (Yonhap)