Transactions of offshore securities by South Korean investors surged more than 60 percent in the first half of this year against the six-month earlier period as local investors have actively sought for high yielding investment products to offset the lackluster Korean market.

Korean investors traded $84.06 billion worth of foreign securities in the January-June period, up 60.3 percent from six months ago, according to Korea Securities Depository on Monday. Transactions in foreign stocks rose 23.6 percent to $18.07 billion and those of bonds jumped 74.4 percent to $65.99 billion during the same period.

By region, the largest $52.33 billion worth investments were placed in securities of the European market, followed by the United States with $26.22 billion, Hong Kong with $2.67 billion, China with $950 million, and Japan with $920 million.

Market analysts attributed the lackluster local financial markets to the jump in Koreans’ active trading of offshore investment products. Korea’s main benchmark stock index Kospi gained a mere 6 percent in the first six months of this year, underperforming its global peers, according to data provided by the Korea Exchange.

U.S. e-commerce giant Amazon was the most favorite choice by Koreans, attracting $970 million in the first six months of this year, which was down 25 percent compared to six months ago. China CSI 300 Index ETF in Hong Kong pulled in $900 million from Korean investors, up 55 percent from the latter half of last year, and Microsoft $390 million, gaining 56.8 percent during the period.

U.S tech stocks Alphabet (A shares) and Nvidia saw a decrease of 9.6 percent and 20.3 percent, respectively.

The outstanding deposits for foreign securities accounts held by Korean nationals totaled $39.84 billion as of the end of June, up 9.8 percent from the end of December last year. Holding in foreign stocks grew 25.2 percent to $12.31 billion, and investment in bonds 4.1 percent to $27.53 billion.

By Chung Seung-hwan and Lee Ha-yeon

[ⓒ Pulse by Maeil Business News Korea & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]