Korean retail investors' offshore stock purchases hit record high in July
Kyeong-je Han
Aug 20, 2020 (Gmt+09:00)
South Korean individuals purchased a record amount of shares in overseas markets last month as they looked beyond the local bourse for bigger returns.
According to data from the Korea Securities Depository on August 20, retail investors bought a net 3.83 trillion won ($3.2 billion) worth of shares in foreign stock markets in July. That marks an all-time high for monthly purchases and surpassed their buying of local stocks worth a net 2.24 trillion won in the same month.
The strong appetite for foreign stocks boosted foreign-currency securities deposits to a record 69.72 trillion won as of August 18, up 33.2% from the end of 2019, data showed.
Korean individuals’ investment in offshore securities was mostly made in the US as 16 of top 20 foreign purchases were American companies.