Foreign Investors Snap Up $4.7 Billion of Kospi Stocks as Retail Traders Sell Off

Kospi rises for five straight sessions last week

Foreign buying drives the index

Retail investors take profits

Foreign investors bought a net 6.547 trillion won ($4.74 billion) of Kospi stocks last week, helping drive South Korea’s benchmark index higher. SK Hynix Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co. led the buying. Retail investors moved in the opposite direction.

Data from the Korea Exchange showed foreign investors were net buyers of 6.547 trillion won during the week of Aug. 10-14. They were net sellers of about 1.5 trillion won on Aug. 10, then turned buyers in each of the next four sessions, with daily net purchases ranging from 53.5 billion won to 3.0387 trillion won.

The Kospi rose in all five trading sessions last week, gaining 11.5% in total as foreign inflows supported the index.

SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics attracted the heaviest foreign buying. Foreign investors bought a net 2.4311 trillion won of SK Hynix and 2.2802 trillion won of Samsung Electronics, accounting for about 72% of weekly net purchases. They were followed by SK Square Co. at 222.7 billion won, Celltrion Inc. at 153.4 billion won, and LG Electronics Inc. and Hyundai Motor Co. at 140 billion won each.

Retail investors were net sellers of 7.0846 trillion won over the same period. They were net buyers of 900 billion won on Aug. 10, but sold shares in each of the following four sessions from Aug. 11 through Aug. 14. Samsung Electronics saw the heaviest retail selling at 3.5311 trillion won, followed by SK Hynix at 2.5792 trillion won.

Market watchers say continued foreign inflows could spread beyond semiconductors to other sectors, setting the stage for a sector-rotation rally.

Choi Su-jin, Hankyung.com reporter, naive@hankyung.com