Foreigners sold South Korean bonds last month for the most since the start of 2020 Via Reuters

SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korea’s capital markets in December saw their biggest outflow since March 2020 as rising political uncertainty weighed on investor sentiment, data from central bank are shown on Wednesday.

Foreigners last month increased their sales to the South Korean market for the fourth straight month by selling $2.58 billion.

In the bond market, they changed net sellers for the first time in nine months, with a large amount of $ 1.28 billion.

The monthly outflow of 3.86 billion dollars was the largest since March 2020, when the global financial market was affected by the COVID-19 epidemic, according to the Bank of Korea.

Last month, the won weakened 5.2% against the dollar, marking its biggest monthly decline in 22 months amid political uncertainty following President Yoon Suk Yeol’s interim martial law on 3 December.