Foreign Investors Net Sellers of South Korean Stocks, Buyers of ETFs This Month

According to Yonhap, foreign investors were net sellers on South Korea's stock markets this month but remained net buyers of exchange-traded funds as volatility picked up. The Korea Exchange said foreigners offloaded a net 12.1 trillion won ($8.12 billion) on the main bourse and 338.1 billion won on the tech-heavy secondary market through Thursday, while buying 593.7 billion won worth of ETFs. KODEX Leverage, which tracks twice the daily performance of the benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), drew the largest foreign inflow at 195 billion won, followed by KODEX 200 with 180.6 billion won. Foreigners also sold single-stock leveraged ETFs, including 79 billion won worth of the SK hynix product managed by Samsung Asset Management Co. and 46.4 billion won worth of the corresponding fund managed by Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Last week, the government unveiled measures on leveraged ETFs, including raising the minimum deposit requirement for investors in single-stock leveraged ETFs to 30 million won from 10 million won and allowing trading in lots of 20 shares.