South Korean retail investors sharply increased bond purchases last month as rising U.S. Treasury yields made fixed-income returns more attractive and stock-market volatility encouraged investors to reduce exposure to risk assets. They bought $1.767 billion of U.S. bonds and sold $404 million, producing net purchases of $1.363 billion, according to SEIBro, the securities information portal of the Korea Securities Depository. Their net buying followed $889 million in July and $1.821 billion in August, after they had been net sellers of $167 million in June. Domestic bond purchases also exceeded 4 trillion won for the first time in two years and five months, reaching 4.0225 trillion won. Analysts said higher yields can support carry trades (strategies focused on collecting interest income), but warned that additional rate increases would lower the value of bonds already held and limit opportunities for capital gains.