Despite KOSPI Record High, Retail Investors' Favorite Is Tesla... Massive Buying of Major Overseas Stocks and ETFs

Amid KOSPI's Record-Breaking Rally, Overseas Stocks See Storm of Net Buying Over Domestic Shares
Fatigue Over Samsung Electronics' Slump... Rising Interest in US Stocks Hitting All-Time Highs "Tesla Ranks 1st"

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Seon-ae] Even as the KOSPI reached an all-time high and set new records, Korean investors showed more enthusiasm for overseas stocks than domestic ones. Their favorite stock remained Tesla.

According to the Korea Securities Depository on the 21st, from last month’s 25th, when the KOSPI closed at 3008, to this month’s 20th, when it set a new record at 3220.70, domestic investors net purchased overseas stocks worth a total of $1.81853 billion (approximately 2.0312 trillion KRW). During the same period, individual investors net purchased domestic stocks worth 1.87 trillion KRW, which was less than the net purchases by foreigners (3.3844 trillion KRW). Even as the KOSPI completed its correction and climbed toward its previous peak, setting new all-time highs, investors focused more on overseas stocks than domestic ones.

The overseas stock most purchased by domestic investors was Tesla ($176.78 million). This was followed by the S&P 500 ETF ($86.75 million), TSMC ($80.20 million), iShares Goldman Sachs Semiconductor ETF ($54.93 million), and Coinbase Global ($54.45 million).

The trend in net purchases clearly shows that domestic investors prefer large-cap overseas stocks and exchange-traded funds (ETFs). Investors who previously favored large-cap stocks in the domestic market have now shifted their focus. In particular, rather than finding appeal in the small- and mid-cap-driven KOSPI rally, they seem to believe there are greater opportunities in the U.S. stock market, which is dominated by large-cap stocks continuously hitting record highs. In fact, top market cap stocks like Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix have been trading sideways and are not the main drivers of this index rally. Samsung Electronics has been stuck in the low 80,000 KRW range for nearly three months. On the 20th, Samsung Electronics closed at 83,900 KRW, up 0.72%, but this was still below the previous KOSPI peak closing price of 89,400 KRW on January 25. A securities industry official hinted, "Due to Samsung Electronics’ sluggish performance, high-net-worth individual investors prefer overseas semiconductor stocks and overseas semiconductor ETFs."

The securities industry expects that domestic investors’ love for Tesla remains unchanged and that this year’s overseas stock settlement amount will set an all-time record. A new record was already set in the first quarter. According to the Korea Securities Depository, the settlement amount in the first quarter of this year was $157.56 billion, a 75.3% increase from $89.88 billion in the previous quarter. This represents 48.7% of the total settlement amount for the previous year, marking the largest scale ever.

Most of the demand for overseas stocks was directed toward the U.S. market, especially technology stocks, with Tesla holding the undisputed number one spot among tech stocks. The top settlement amount stocks were Tesla ($11.872 billion), GameStop ($5.220 billion), Apple ($3.864 billion), Churchill Capital ($2.571 billion), and Palantir Technologies ($2.176 billion). The U.S. stock settlement volume was $119.89 billion, accounting for 93.3% of the total settlement volume. This is a 98.7% increase, double that of the previous quarter.

Park Moon-gyu, head of the Global Division at the Korea Securities Depository, explained, "Among the top overseas stock settlement stocks, Tesla’s settlement volume has continued to rise," adding, "This shows that domestic investors’ interest remains focused on Tesla."

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