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The Korea Herald
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THE INVESTOR
March 19, 2024

Stocks & Bonds

20,000+ foreign funds invest in Korean stocks

  • PUBLISHED :May 21, 2018 - 14:30
  • UPDATED :May 21, 2018 - 14:30
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[THE INVESTOR] The number of foreign funds who have invested in Korean stocks has exceeded the 20,000 mark for the first time this year, the financial watchdog said on May 21. 

There are 21,328 foreign stock investment funds registered with the Financial Supervisory Services as of end-March, up 112.7 percent from 2008 when the number hovered around 10,000. The overseas funds made up 62.3 percent of all foreign institutional investors investing in Korean stocks. 




Offshore pension fund came in second with 2,250, followed by securities firms with 976, banks with 721 and insurance companies with 503.
Meanwhile, the number of individual investors came to 11,200, up 61.6 percent from a decade earlier. 

Breaking down by countries, the US ranked first with 15,061 overseas investors, making up 33.2 percent of all investors, followed by Japan with 3,972, the UK with 2,657, Canada with 2,649, Luxembourg with 2,001 and Ireland with 1,358. 

The US investors hold 259.14 trillion won (US$239.70 billion) of listed stocks here, making up 41.4 percent of the total market capitalization of 625.15 trillion won. 

With the number of overseas investment increasing here, industry watchers say shareholder activism led by foreign funds will expand, with the New York-based hedge fund Elliott Management being one of them. 

Elliott, which claims to hold more than 1 trillion won of shares in Hyundai Motor Group affiliates, has been leading the opposition campaign against the auto giant’s restructuring plan that will be put to vote on May 29.

By Ahn Sung-mi (sahn@heraldcorp.com)

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