In brief
South Korean securities regulators recorded a 19.11‑trillion‑won net sell‑off by foreign investors in September, mainly from the KOSPI and KOSDAQ exchanges, and a simultaneous 7.57‑trillion‑won withdrawal from domestic bonds. A Yonhap note highlights Britain and the United States as the largest individual sellers. Contrastingly, AdmiralMarkets data from Aju Press shows foreign investors buying and institutions selling. Market analysts at UBS lowered its KOSPI target amid a strong won, citing an expected rebound next year.
South Korea’s financial watchdog data show that in the month of September 2026 foreign investors were net sellers of listed shares, dumping more than 19 trillion won of equity and again pulling cash out of the domestic bond market.
Xinhua reported that overseas investors net sold 19.11 trillion won (about $14.3 billion) of Korean-listed shares, taking a 34.8 percent share of the total market capitalization by the end of the month. The equity sell‑off was concentrated mainly in the main Korean Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), where foreigners sold 17.45 trillion won, and in the KOSDAQ tech‑heavy market, where 1.66 trillion won was disposed. The foreign holding of local stocks ended September at 2,296.0 trillion won, roughly 34.8 percent of the market cap. In parallel, foreign capital dragged a net 7.57 trillion won out of the Korean domestic bond market after buying 127.0 billion won worth of bonds in the short term; the foreign ownership of listed bonds stood at 322.9 trillion won, 11.2 percent of all bonds.
By contrast, a Yonhap note published 11 hours earlier points to Britain and the United States as the top sellers in September, with UK investors net selling 6.9 trillion won and U.S. investors 3.9 trillion won, after which other nations followed. The note’s headline simply lists the country‑by‑country figures but does not detail the KOSPI or KOSDAQ breakdown.
Further evidence of split market signals comes from AdmiralMarkets, citing Aju Press, which reports that institutions overall were net sellers of Korean shares, disposing 457.9 billion won in September, while foreign investors bought a net 35.3 billion won of local equities. That data suggests the presence of a buying pressure from overseas investors that contradicts the Xinhua statement of a broad sell‑off by foreign capital.
Market analysts at UBS also weighed in on the ongoing volatility, lowering its 12‑month KOSPI target to 7,500 from an earlier 8,000 points. The investment bank explained that a stronger won has weighed on Korean equity valuations, but it expects a rebound next year as foreign demand recovers. The UBS comment reflects the broader sentiment that, despite short‑term sell‑offs, foreign interest may return once macro conditions improve.
Taken together, the data from the Financial Supervisory Service, Yonhap, AdmiralMarkets and UBS paint a picture of a market in which foreign investors are shifting stance. While the FSS shows a net withdrawal of cash from both equity and debt, the disparate reports suggest that the overseas positioning remains fluid, with some sectors and individual investors still buying while others are selling out in September.
