Foreign investors bought more Korean stocks for the third month in a row in July, helped by the strong performance of the local stock market, data showed Thursday.

According to Yonhap news agency, offshore investors bought a net 3.41 trillion won (US$2.46 billion) worth of local stocks last month, following a net purchase of 3.07 trillion won the previous month, according to the data from the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS).

Foreigners had been net sellers of Korean stocks for nine consecutive months through April, but turned to net buying in May.

Following their purchase in July, offshore investors owned 921.6 trillion won worth of local stocks, or 27.7 percent of total market capitalisation.

By country, investors from the United States were the top buyers, net purchasing 2.48 trillion won worth of shares, followed by those from Ireland with 765 billion won, according to the data.

In the local bond market, foreign investors purchased a net 3 trillion won worth of bonds last month, marking the sixth consecutive month of net buying.

Their holdings of local bonds had come to 307.7 trillion won as of end-July, accounting for 11.4 percent of listed bonds here, the data showed.

In July, the benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) rose more than 6 percent, hitting a yearly high of 3,254.47 on July 30.