Samsung Securities Reports 416% Increase in Corporate Stock Purchases Last Year

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Ji-hwan] Just as the scale of purchases by individual investors increased significantly last year, corporations also greatly expanded their stock investments.

Samsung Securities announced on the 21st that, based on an analysis of the investment status of about 3,500 corporate clients last year, the amount of stock purchases by corporations in 2020 was recorded at 578.3 billion KRW. This represents a 415.7% increase compared to 112.1 billion KRW in 2019. This amount is larger than the total stock purchase amount by corporations over the three years from 2017 to 2019 combined.

Last year, the domestic stock purchase amount by these corporations increased more than fourfold from 91.7 billion KRW in 2019 to 396.1 billion KRW. In particular, overseas stocks surged ninefold from 20.4 billion KRW to 182.2 billion KRW. This year, up to February, the stock purchase amount reached 945.5 billion KRW, including 760 billion KRW domestically and 185.5 billion KRW overseas, marking a 63.5% increase compared to the end of last year.

The number of corporations engaging in stock investment also increased significantly. In 2020, 2,097 corporations purchased stocks, more than double the 1,002 corporations in 2019. The top 10 domestic stocks purchased by corporations from 2020 through February this year were large blue-chip stocks such as Samsung Electronics, LG Chem, SK Hynix, and Hyundai Motor. The average stock price increase rate of these top 10 purchased stocks in 2020 was 75.7%, which is more than twice the 30.8% increase rate of the KOSPI index during the same period.

Among overseas stocks, four of the top 10 purchased stocks by corporations last year were not included in the top 50 overseas stocks purchased by domestic investors. This is interpreted as corporations selecting high-growth global stocks based on their expertise in the industries they operate in.

Han Sang-hoon, head of Sales Solutions at Samsung Securities, said, "The inflow of corporate operating funds, which were previously concentrated in interest-bearing assets, into the stock market was greatly influenced by the increased attractiveness of the stock market." He added, "As economic recovery becomes more visible, the number of attractive investment targets for corporations seeking stable stock investments is expected to increase, leading to further expansion of investment scale."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.