Foreign ownership of South Korean stocks exceeded the 400 trillion won ($374 billion) mark for the first time ever in April on their brisk buying spurred by strong corporate earnings, the financial regulator said Wednesday.

   Foreign investors' holdings of local shares amounted to 412.51 trillion won as of the end of April, or 30.8 percent of the total market cap, according to the monthly report by the Financial Supervisory Service.

   It was the first time foreign holdings surpassed the 400 trillion won mark since foreigners were first allowed to hold Korean stocks in 1992.

   Foreign ownership reached 395.4 trillion won at the end of March, or 30.6 percent of the total market cap, it said.

   The increase came after foreigners purchased a net 4.4 trillion won worth of local stocks and steep gains in the key index KOSPI helped drive up the value of foreign holdings, the FSS said.

   Overseas investors switched to a net-buying mode in April after cutting holdings in the previous two months due to fallouts from a March earthquake in Japan and the eurozone debt crisis.

   Luxembourg, a tax-haven country with many hot-money managers, was the biggest foreign stock buyer in April, picking up a net 1 trillion won, followed by Britain with 872.3 billion won, the watchdog said.

   Foreigners, meanwhile, bought a net 1.13 trillion won worth of local bonds last month, pushing up their total debt holdings to

76.18 trillion won, or 6.6 percent of the total market cap as of end-April, the FSS said. It was up from 75.32 trillion won in debt holdings by foreigners a month earlier.

   The April inflow to the bond market marks the third monthly net purchase in a row by foreign investors, it said.  (Yonhap News)