Foreign investors sold a net 49.3 trillion won of Korean shares in June, and the value of what they hold went up by 56.3 trillion won
Two numbers in Friday's release point in opposite directions, and they sit four lines apart.
The Financial Supervisory Service published its June tally of foreign securities investment on Friday. Foreign investors sold a net 49.336 trillion won of listed Korean shares during the month and put a net 4.478 trillion won into listed bonds, for a total withdrawal of 44.858 trillion won. The selling was a main board event: net sales of 50.979 trillion won on the KOSPI market against net purchases of 1.643 trillion won on KOSDAQ. It was the sixth consecutive month of net equity selling and the third consecutive month of net bond buying.
Then the holdings line. At the end of June foreign investors held 2,908.6 trillion won of listed shares, up 56.3 trillion won on May, and 334.8 trillion won of listed bonds, up 1.2 trillion won. The equity holding is 36.4 percent of the market's value, against 35.3 percent a month earlier.
Total market value fell over the same month, from 8,070.5 trillion won to 7,982.8 trillion won. So foreigners sold, the market shrank, and the foreign share of it rose by 1.1 points.
The release does not reconcile that, and neither does this brief. It does supply one piece of the arithmetic in a footnote: the net buying and selling figures exclude exchange traded funds, equity linked warrants and exchange traded notes, while the holdings figures cover every issue. A second footnote is worth carrying for anyone comparing these numbers with the exchange's own. The agency compiles on a settlement basis, and the Korea Exchange compiles on an execution basis.
Who sold
Europe accounted for net sales of 30.8 trillion won and the Americas 27.0 trillion won, while Asia was a net buyer of 2.6 trillion won. By the nationality lines the release reports, the United Kingdom sold a net 32.2 trillion won and the United States 23.2 trillion won. The Cayman Islands bought a net 7.3 trillion won, France 6.1 trillion won and Hong Kong 5.3 trillion won.
American accounts remain much the largest holders, at 1,222.3 trillion won, or 42.0 percent of everything foreign investors own in Korean equities.
One figure gives the run its length. Net selling of Korean shares over the first six months of 2026 comes to 163.6 trillion won, against 11.8 trillion won across the whole of 2025.
