Foreigners Hesitate, Individuals Take Over the Baton?

Four Consecutive Days of Selling... Individuals Bought Over 3 Trillion Last Week Driving Index Up

[Asia Economy Reporter Song Hwajeong] Foreign investors, who led the stock market rally this month, turned to ‘selling’ last week for the first time in four weeks, causing the market to stall. Meanwhile, individual investors bought more than 3 trillion won last week, defending the index from falling, drawing attention to whether they will take over as the driving force behind the index.

As of 9:20 a.m. on the 26th, the KOSPI recorded 3,192.48, up 6.38 points (0.20%) from the previous day. Individuals led the index rise by net buying 106.2 billion won. This marks four consecutive days of net buying. Foreign investors sold 50 billion won, continuing their selling streak for the fourth day.

Foreign investors, who had turned to buying this month and led the KOSPI to reach an all-time high, have been stalling since last week. They net sold 1.6249 trillion won last week, returning to a selling trend for the first time in four weeks. By stock, they sold Samsung Electronics the most, offloading 738.5 billion won, followed by Kia (305.7 billion won), Kakao (305.6 billion won), SK Hynix (300.1 billion won), and Hyundai Motor (121.6 billion won). Since the KOSPI reached an all-time high of the 3,220 level on the 20th, foreign investors have continuously sold, realizing profits.

On the other hand, individual investors have continued buying since the day after the KOSPI hit its all-time high, purchasing 2.7115 trillion won, maintaining their buying momentum after the peak. Investor deposit funds, which are waiting funds in the stock market, reached 69.4172 trillion won on the 22nd, the highest since January 27’s 70.022 trillion won.

Just as last November when foreign investors started buying and the index broke out of a correction to an uptrend, followed by individual investors buying and pushing the index to a new high, attention is focused on whether this time foreign investors will change the trend and individual investors will lift it. After reaching an all-time high in January and entering a correction, the market rebounded this month as foreign investors returned to buying, hitting a new all-time high in three months.

So far, individual buying is not as aggressive as in the past, but if individual buying becomes more active, further index gains are expected. Kim Younghwan, a researcher at NH Investment & Securities, said, "In the short term, the index is facing resistance near the previous high, delaying active inflows of individual funds. However, if the index breaks out upward from the box range, individual funds will flow in, allowing the index to level up."

Foreign capital inflows are also expected to continue. Seo Jeonghoon, a researcher at Samsung Securities, explained, "Although foreign investors have sold in recent days, the inflow trend will continue as observed in early April. This is because the exchange rate and interest rate conditions, as well as the high economic sensitivity of the domestic economy, will stand out as differentiating factors."

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