Korea Securities Depository (KSD) said on the 27th that, as of the end of September this year, the amount of foreign-currency securities held by domestic investors totaled $220.26 billion (about 316 trillion won). That was up 19.4% from $184.45 billion at the end of June, marking a record high.
By type, foreign-currency stocks stood at $166.01 billion at the end of September, and foreign-currency bonds at $54.25 billion. They rose 22% and 12%, respectively, over the quarter.
Among foreign-currency securities, the U.S. market share was dominant at 80.7%. Looking only at foreign-currency stocks, the share reached 93.7%. The top holdings by domestic investors in foreign-currency stocks were all U.S. names, including Tesla, Nvidia, Palantir, and Apple. The top 10 stocks accounted for 45.6% of the total foreign-currency stock holdings.
In the third quarter of this year (July–September), the settlement amount of foreign-currency securities totaled $200.76 billion. That was up 6.4% from the second quarter (April–June).
Looking only at foreign-currency stocks, trading leaders included the exchange-traded fund (ETF) that tracks the U.S. Standard & Poor's 500 index, "SPY," as well as ◇ the 3x semiconductor index "SOXL" ◇ Tesla ◇ the 2x Tesla product "TSLL" ◇ Nvidia.