Foreign holdings of domestic stocks last month surpassed KRW 900 trillion in value for the first time. Shown is the dealing room on Aug. 4 at Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul's Jung-gu District. (Yonhap News)

By Kim Seon Ah

Foreign holdings of domestic stocks have broken the KRW 900 trillion mark for the first time, following three consecutive months of net buying.

The Financial Supervisory Service on Aug. 7 released data saying foreign investors net purchased KRW 3.41 trillion in listed stocks last month.

As of July 31, foreign holdings of listed stocks were worth KRW 921.6 trillion, up KRW 58.2 trillion from June and accounting for 27.7% of the total market capitalization of KRW 3,328 trillion.

Net foreign buying of stocks last month reached KRW 3.78 trillion and on the over-the-counter market KOSDAQ, net foreign sales posted KRW 372 billion.

By country, the U.S. led with stock purchases worth KRW 2.48 trillion, followed by Ireland (KRW 765 billion) and Luxembourg (KRW 700 billion).

On the bond market, foreign investors bought KRW 12.81 trillion in domestic listed bonds last month and repaid KRW 9.81 trillion at maturity for net investment of KRW 3 trillion. As of late last month, foreign players held KRW 307.7 trillion worth of listed bonds.

sofiakim218@korea.kr