Foreign investors in South Korea continued to recoup investments from the local bond market for three consecutive months, dragging the amount of locally listed bonds held by them to the lowest level in six months, according to the financial regulator on Dec.8.

The latest data of the Financial Supervisory Service showed foreign holdings of locally listed bonds amounted to 122.3 trillion won ($103 billion) as of Dec.4, dropping from 124.77 trillion won in end-November. 

It is also the lowest figure since 122.6 trillion won on June 20.

By month, the total amount of listed bonds held by overseas investors increased until September. However, the figure has been sliding, decreasing by 5.15 billion won in October and 2.36 trillion won in November.

They net purchased 3.16 trillion won worth of locally listed bonds in October and 1.39 trillion won in November. However, since the amount of net purchases was smaller than that of bonds redeemed at maturity, the balance went down.

Foreign investors also remained net sellers of Korean futures for the fourth consecutive month in November.

They sold Korea Treasury Bond Futures with a three-year maturity from August to November, which led the accumulated amount sold to reach 97.6 billion won. The amount of KTBF with a 10-year maturity sold from September to November totaled 54.1 billion won.

By Jie Ye-eun The Korea Herald (yeeun@heraldcorp.com)