Foreign stock ownership on Seoul’s benchmark Kospi bourse reached the highest level this week since 2006, industry data showed Thursday.

According to the Korea Financial Investment Association, offshore investors held a net 585.98 trillion won ($431 billion) as of Tuesday -- 38.90 percent of the bourse’s market capitalization of 1,506 trillion won.

The figure is the highest since Aug. 8, 2006, that accounted for 38.91 percent of Kospi’s market value.

Foreign investors’ strong net purchases this month pushed their ownership of stocks to a new high since Oct. 8, 2018, over expectations building on US-China trade ties and subsiding fears on a potential war in the Middle East.

During the nine trading days this year, foreigners net purchased a total of 1.81 trillion won worth of Kospi stocks. In particular, foreign buying has focused on Korea’s two largest chipmakers -- Samsung Electronics and SK hynix -- with brightening prospects of a recovery in the semiconductor market.

The amount of foreign investors’ net purchases of Samsung Electronics and SK hynix stocks recorded 730.3 billion won and 394 billion won, respectively, in the given period.

Meanwhile, foreign ownership of shares traded on the secondary Kosdaq market reached 10.51 percent two days earlier, at 25.75 trillion won. The portion of foreign ownership has remained around 10 percent, since it hit a record high of 13 percent in January 2018.

By Jie Ye-eun (yeeun@heraldcorp.com)