Investors brought money into South Korean stock funds last month despite the equity market slump, data showed Monday, posting the longest daily buying streak since 2007.

Local stock funds, excluding index funds, saw a net inflow of 2.01 trillion won (US$1.84 billion) for 31 consecutive days from Sept. 23, according to the Korea Financial Investment Association (KFIA).

The longest unbroken run of net buying lasted for 66 days between May and August in 2007 when stock funds in Asia's fourth-largest economy were in boom times. Then between December 2007 and February 2008, investors purchased stock funds for 45 consecutive days. 

In contrast, 22.7 billion won was withdrawn from funds investing in offshore stocks during the period, it said.

Analysts said investors are coming back to pick up bargain stocks. The benchmark KOSPI remained in a range of 1,900 and 1,930 points over the past month as leading exporters reported poor performance in the third quarter.

The figure is a sharp fall from the summer rally when the index climbed to over 2,050 points between July and August on policy hopes for bigger dividend payouts and economy stimulus packages. 

"Local securities funds have attracted investment after the KOSPI underwent a series of corrections," Bae Sung-jin, a Hyundai Securities analyst, said. "There is widespread consensus that 1,900 is the bottom level."

Despite the money inflow, some market watchers remained negative about the local stock market, concerned about the grim outlook for the fourth quarter due to the slow pace of the global economy recovery.  

"Although investors are in a net buying mode, the amount stays at tens of billions of won because investor sentiment has not fundamentally improved amid losses by large-cap stocks," said Kim Hu-jung, a researcher at Yuanta Securities Korea. (Yonhap)