S.Korean institutional investment into foreign securities reduce first in 2 years

Investment by South Korean financial institutions into foreign securities reduced for the first time in two years due to a fall in global stock prices, central bank data showed Friday.

Local institutional investors, including banks, insurers and securities firms, held 114.9 billion U.S. dollars of foreign stocks and bonds as of the end of September, down 0.5 percent from three months earlier, according to the Bank of Korea (BOK).

It marked the first time since the second quarter of 2013 that institutional holdings of foreign securities go down.

The reduction came as global stock market went bearish, with Chinese stocks sliding 27.5 percent during the third quarter. Stocks in Brazil, Japan, the European Union and the United States declined 15.1 percent, 14.1 percent, 9.5 percent and 7.6 percent respectively.

Asset managers reduced their ownership of foreign securities by 4.17 billion dollars, with insurers and securities firms decreasing their holdings by 3.03 billion dollars and 0.08 billion dollars each.

Institutional holdings of foreign stocks fell below 40 billion dollars at 35.23 billion dollars as of end-September, down 5.23 billion dollars from three months earlier.

The holdings of foreign bonds, however, increased 0.06 billion dollars from three months earlier to 1.12 billion dollars in the third quarter. Enditem