Foreign stock funds that consist of stocks of companies outside South Korea basked in sunny gains last year that far surpassed returns by foreign bond funds and funds that invest in local equities, data showed on Thursday.

Foreign stock funds yielded an average 3.41 percent last year, far higher than an average 0.76 percent return posted by funds that invest in local stocks, according to the data compiled by market researcher Zeroin. The comparable figures for foreign bond funds and domestic bond funds were 1.98 percent and 2.25 percent, respectively, and commodity funds suffered a massive loss of 13.48 percent, the data showed.

Funds that invest in Japanese stocks posted the highest return of 44.12 percent last year. Japan's Nikkei spiked 56.7 percent last year, the largest gain in 41 years, on the back of massive stimulus measures preached by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

Bullish U.S. stocks also helped foreign stock funds fare well last year. The S&P 500 index gained 29.11 percent last year, marking the largest rise in 15 years.

On the other hand, the country's key stock index, the KOSPI, rose 0.72 percent last year, sharply falling from the previous year's annual rise of 9.4 percent.

Analysts said foreign stock funds may carve out modest gains this year as emerging markets are still vulnerable to currency risks that stem from the Fed tapering.

"The European and the U.S. stock markets are still attractive as their economies are on track to a recovery," said Oh Eun-soo, an analyst at Hyundai Securities. (Yonhap News)