Seoul, Jan 26 (IANS): South Korean retail investors' holdings of shares in electric vehicle leader Tesla Motors Inc soared nearly 32 per cent this year to cross the $10 billion mark.

Local individual investors owned $10.33 billion worth of Tesla shares as of Friday, up 31.9 per cent from the end of last year, according to the data from the Korea Securities Depository.

The figure also represents a 73 times increase from the end of 2019 and were South Korean retail investors' most-bought issue among foreign shares.

South Korean retail investors' ownership of Tesla accounted for 1.28 per cent of the EV carmaker's market value of $825.3 billion as of Friday, up from 1.17 per cent at the end of 2020.

The sharp rise in individual investors' Tesla holdings came amid a jump in its share prices, which promoted individuals' buying binge. Tesla shares finished at $846.64 on Friday, up about 20 per cent from the end of last year, reports Yonhap news agency.

This year alone, individual investors bought a net $779 million worth of Tesla shares, taking up some 23 per cent of local investors' total net buying of overseas stocks.

Smartphone giant Apple was the second-most-bought stock by South Korean retail investors with $3.55 billion as of Friday, up 18.7 per cent from end-December.

Amazon came in third with $1.84 billion, but retail investors' holdings of the e-commerce behemoth fell 10.7 per cent from the end of last year, according to the data.