The number of foreign funds investing in the South Korean stock market has more than doubled over the decade, exceeding the 20,000 mark this year, the financial watchdog said Monday.

A total of 21,328 foreign stock investment funds were registered with the Financial Supervisory Service as of the end of March, up 112.7 percent from 10 years earlier and accounting for slightly over 62 percent of foreign institutions operating in South Korea.

Equity investment funds were followed by pensions and other funds with 2,250, securities companies with 976, banks with 721 and insurance companies with 503.

Over the cited period, the number of foreign brokerages investing in South Korean stocks surged 70.9 percent, with comparable figures coming to 48.8 percent for insurers, 43.9 percent for pensions and other funds, and 31.3 percent for banks.

Offshore individual investors numbered 11,200 as of end-March, up 61.6 percent from a decade earlier.

By country, the most investors came from the US, with 15,061, taking up 33.2 percent of the total, trailed by Japanese investors with 3,972 and Britons with 2,657.

American investors held slightly over 259 trillion won ($239 billion) worth of South Korean listed stocks, or 41.4 percent of the total market capitalization. British investors were a distant second with 47.7 trillion won, or 7.6 percent.(Yonhap)