Seoul: British investors emerged as the most active participants in the South Korean stock market this year, as reported by recently released data.

According to Yonhap News Agency, the Financial Supervisory Service revealed that foreigners engaged in trading activities amounting to 1,247.7 trillion won (US$889.01 billion) in South Korean stocks between January and August. Investors from Britain led this activity, recording a trading volume of 557.4 trillion won, which accounted for 44.7 percent of the total foreign trading volume.

Following Britain, investors from the Cayman Islands and Singapore were also prominent players in the South Korean stock market. Their trading volumes represented 14.1 percent and 12.1 percent of the total, respectively, during the same period. Combined, traders from these three nations were responsible for 70 percent of all foreign stock transactions.

In contrast, investors from Asian countries demonstrated minimal activity in the South Korean stock market. Chinese investors accounted for just 0.5 percent of the trade volume, while Hong Kong and Japanese investors represented 0.5 percent and 0.4 percent, respectively.

Despite the high trading activity by British investors, American investors held the largest share of Korean stocks in terms of ownership. By the end of August, the value of Korean stocks owned by American investors amounted to 367.4 trillion won, making up 40.6 percent of all Korean equities held by foreign investors.