Foreign investors' purchases of U.S. stocks have surged to a record high.

According to the Financial Times (FT) on the 26th local time, foreign investors' net purchases of U.S. stocks and investment fund shares reached 942 billion dollars, equivalent to approximately 1.28 trillion won, over the 12-month period ending in July this year.

This is the largest 12-month figure since the U.S. Department of the Treasury began compiling related statistics in 1985.

In particular, foreign net purchases of U.S. stocks and investment funds in the second quarter of this year jumped 62% from the same period last year to 426 billion dollars, or about 579 trillion won.

The previous quarterly record high was 299 billion dollars, or about 406 trillion won, set in 2022.

The S&P 500 index rose by about 20% over the one-year period leading up to July.

Although it experienced a sharp decline in the second quarter due to the impact of the Iran war, it subsequently rebounded to post a 14.9% gain.

This marks the highest quarterly growth rate since the second quarter of 2020.

Analysts suggest that purchases of U.S. stocks by investors from countries with strong stock markets, such as South Korea and Taiwan, also influenced this trend.

This means that existing investors, whose exposure to South Korean stocks grew due to share price increases in Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, dispersed their funds into overseas stock markets like the U.S. to reduce concentration risk.

On the other hand, foreign investor demand for U.S. bonds declined.

Foreign net purchases of U.S. bonds decreased from 314 billion dollars, or about 427 trillion won, in the first quarter of this year to 188 billion dollars, or about 255 trillion won, in the second quarter.

The volume of U.S. Treasuries reported to be held by China also dropped to 618 billion dollars, falling to its lowest level since August 2008.

Analysts attribute this to China diversifying its assets into gold and government agency bonds.