Foreigner investors offloaded around 1.6 trillion won ($1.4 billion) worth of South Korean equities and debts in April as uncertainty lingers over eurozone debt, data showed Thursday.

Overseas investors sold a net 595.7 billion won worth of stocks, with their combined holdings reaching 402.1 trillion won as of the end of last month, according to the data by the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS). This is a turnaround from 939.0 billion won worth of net buying reported in March.

The FSS also said investors dumped 1 trillion won worth of bonds, bringing their total holdings to 87.5 trillion won. In the previous month, foreign investors bought 1.8 trillion won more than they sold.

Equities owned by foreign investors stood at 32.0 percent aggregate value of listed stocks while bond holdings equaled 7.1 percent of the domestic market.

The regulator said the decline marks the first time this year foreign investors became overall sellers of equities and debts.

The FSS said the monthly decline came as mostly European and U.S. investors sold equities to lock in profits and reduce their exposure to potential risks as Europe struggled to cope with fiscal problems.

Stocks sold by European investors amounted to a little more than 1 trillion won, from net buying of 793.5 billion won in the previous month.

The regulator added foreign net selling of bonds was caused by money not being reinvested and a general drop in new purchases.

European investors sold 286.2 billion won worth of bonds more than they bought, while net buying by U.S. investors shrank to just 6.4 billion won from 859.7 billion won tallied in the previous month.

Thai and British investors were among the heaviest sellers, while Norwegians continued to snap up local debts for the third straight month. (Yonhap)