Foreign ownership of Korea's 10 largest family-controlled conglomerates hovered below the 20-percent level as offshore investors unloaded part of their holdings in recent market corrections, industry data showed Tuesday.

As of July 25, the average foreign ownership of the top 10 business groups, known here as chaebol, stood at 19.79 percent, down 0.39 percentage point from the end of March, according to the data by conglomerate tracker Chaebol.com.

The combined market cap of the business groups dropped by more than 12 percent to 222.76 trillion won ($196 billion) over the cited period, the data showed.

Hanjin Group saw its foreign ownership decline most to 16.37 percent from 19.01 percent over the cited period. Foreign ownership in Hyundai Heavy Industries, Doosan and LG groups declined by around 1 percentage point, according to the data.

But foreign investors jacked up their stakes in Samsung Group, whose flagship units include Samsung Electronics Co., the country's biggest cap company.

Foreign ownership in Samsung rose 0.07 percentage point to 27.26 percent over the cited period.

Hyundai Motor Group also saw foreign investors increase their holdings in the country's leading automaking group to 32.87 percent from 32.37 percent.

Foreign investors sold a net 4.6 trillion won worth of local shares in the April-June period, according to data from the Financial Supervisory Service. (Yonhap)