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Foreigners offload record amount of Korean stocks in February

Published: 27 Mar. 2026, 09:09

A screen in Hana Bank's trading room in central Seoul shows the stock prices of Samsung Electronics and SK hynix on March 3. [YONHAP]

Foreign investors net sold a new monthly high amount of local stocks in February, data showed on Friday, amid lingering concerns over a possible bubble in the AI industry.

Offshore investors offloaded a net 19.56 trillion won ($12.98 billion) worth of local stocks last month, following a net selling of 98 billion won the previous month, according to data from the Financial Supervisory Service.

AI-related stocks, such as chipmakers, plunged in February amid concerns over their overvaluation.

Following their net selling in February, offshore investors owned 2,025.54 trillion won worth of local stocks, or 32.6 percent of total market capitalization.

By country, investors from the United States were the top sellers in February, net selling 8.7 trillion won worth of shares, followed by those from Britain with a net sell-off of 4.7 trillion won, according to the data.

In the local bond market, foreign investors purchased a net 7.43 trillion won worth of local bonds last month.

Their holdings of local bonds stood at 337.3 trillion won as of the end of February, accounting for 12 percent of listed bonds here, the data showed.

Yonhap