[THE INVESTOR] Foreigners turned net sellers of South Korean stocks in April from a month earlier, with their stock holdings on the local exchanges reaching 32 percent of all listed shares, the financial regulator said on May 12.

Last month, foreign investors sold a net 2.204 trillion won (US$2.1 billion) worth of local stocks, a reversal from net purchases of 123 billion won worth of stocks a month earlier, data from the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) showed. 

By country, British investors sold the most, at a net 1.4 trillion won stocks, and Saudi Arabian investors ranked second with 1.2 trillion won stocks sold, net. But U.S. investors bought 1.4 trillion won stocks, the FSS data said.

At the end of April, the value of stocks held by foreigners was 643.8 trillion won, the data showed.

By Park Ga-young and newswires (gypark@heraldcorp.com)