Foreign investors became net buyers of South Korean stocks for the second straight month in January and increased their investment in local bonds, data showed Monday.

Foreigners bought a net 408 billion won ($342 million) worth of local stocks in January, according to the data from the Financial Supervisory Service.

As of end-January, local stocks held by foreign investors came to 581.5 trillion won, accounting for 33.8 percent of the country's market capitalization.

By country, investors from the US held 246.1 trillion won worth of local stocks, accounting for 42.3 percent of the total held by offshore investors, followed by those from Britain with 7.9 percent and Luxemburg with 6.6 percent.

Still, American investors sold a net 1.5 trillion won, while British investors net purchased 632 billion won, according to the FSS.

Foreigners also purchased more bonds than they sold in January, and their overall investment in local bonds rose by 4.6 trillion won, with 1.58 trillion won worth of their bond holdings coming to maturity in January.

Foreign investors snapped a three-month selling streak of their overall bond holdings in January. Their bond holdings were valued at 128.4 trillion won, or 7 percent of the total as of end-January. (Yonhap)