"It’s the cheapest right now"… the stock 'big-pocket' retail investors snapped up with KRW 44 billion

High-net-worth individuals and top 1% elite investors by return

Most heavily bought: Samsung Electronics, the 'bellwether semiconductor stock'

High-net-worth individuals and the top 1% of elite investors by return were found to have bought the most shares of Samsung Electronics—widely seen as the bellwether semiconductor stock—last week. With volatility rising in the local equity market amid the war between the United States and Iran, analysts say demand has grown further for buying high-quality stocks on dips.

According to Korea Investment & Securities on the 15th, wealthy clients using the brokerage (average account balance of at least KRW 1 billion) bought KRW 44.4 billion worth of Samsung Electronics from the 6th to the 13th. That was 2.6 times more than the net buying of runner-up SK Hynix (KRW 16.7 billion).

Over the same period, Samsung Electronics also ranked No. 1 in net buying among Mirae Asset Securities’ top 1% investors by return. The stock plunged 15.2%, from KRW 216,500 at the close on the 27th of last month—just before the war broke out—to KRW 183,500 on the 13th.

Brokerages are marking up Samsung Electronics’ target price, citing expectations that the semiconductor sector will not take a major hit even amid war-related risks. In a recent report, Hana Securities raised its estimates for Samsung Electronics’ first-quarter results this year to revenue of KRW 122 trillion and operating profit of KRW 38 trillion. The firm said higher prices for conventional DRAM should translate into earnings growth, and that the company is also proving its competitiveness in high-bandwidth memory (HBM), removing factors behind the undervaluation. It raised the target price to KRW 300,000 from KRW 250,000 about two weeks earlier.

Interest was also strong in a KOSDAQ-based exchange-traded fund (ETF) product launched on the 10th. Samsung Active Asset Management’s 'KoAct KOSDAQ Active' (No. 3; KRW 11.9 billion) and Timefolio Asset Management’s 'TIME KOSDAQ Active' (No. 6; KRW 6.7 billion) both made it onto Korea Investment & Securities’ list of top net buys by wealthy clients.

Growth stocks such as Rznomics (No. 2), EcoPro (No. 3) and Rainbow Robotics (No. 7) also ranked in the 'top 10' net buys among Mirae Asset’s elite investors.

Reporter Lee Seon-a suna@hankyung.com