Foreign investors nearly doubled their Korean stock holdings to 1,327 trillion won ($916 billion) in 2025, compared to 673 trillion won the previous year, buoyed by a 75 percent surge in the benchmark KOSPI, data showed Sunday.
Their share of total market capitalization rose to 30.8 percent, up from 27 percent, led mostly by U.S. investors.
Artificial intelligence (AI)-related sectors, especially semiconductors and electronics, drove much of the gains, despite net foreign sales of 9.2 trillion won.
Foreign investors were able to realize near 100 percent gains despite overall net selling, as they heavily favored AI-related stocks, which rose more than 120 percent.
According to financial market data, the U.S. investors held a total of 546 trillion won worth of Korean stocks, followed by the U.K. (144 trillion won), Singapore (88 trillion won), Luxembourg (70 trillion won) and Ireland (58 trillion won). The Cayman Islands, widely known as a tax haven, accounted for 30.3 trillion won.
U.K. and Cayman-based investors favored high-frequency trading, while U.S. investors focused on long-term holdings.
Investors from the UK were the most frequent traders of Korean stocks. In 2025, they bought 511 trillion won and sold 519 trillion won, trading a total of 1,031 trillion won, accounting for 46.2 percent of all foreign trading in Korea that year.
Cayman Islands investors came in second, with a total trading volume of 296 trillion won, accounting for 13.3 percent.
U.S. investors traded 263 trillion won, accounting for 11.8 percent, coming in third.
Meanwhile, the bullish rally over the past few months also fueled growth in companies with a market cap of over 1 trillion won, expanding Korea’s large-cap ranks. The number of companies joining the “1 trillion won club” jumped to 365, reflecting continued s gains in both the KOSPI and Kosdaq.
Source: Korea Times News
