Foreigners, 'Palja' for 6 Consecutive Weeks...Significant Reduction in Selling Volume

[Asia Economy Reporter Song Hwajeong] Foreign investors continued their selling trend in the domestic stock market for six consecutive weeks. However, the scale of selling significantly decreased.

According to the Korea Exchange on the 23rd, foreign investors net sold approximately 19.3 billion KRW in the domestic stock market during the week from the 24th to the 28th. This marks a sharp decline compared to the previous trillion-won scale selling trend. Foreign investors sold 266.8 billion KRW in the KOSPI market while purchasing 247.5 billion KRW in the KOSDAQ market.

The stock most purchased by foreign investors last week was HMM. Foreign investors net bought HMM shares worth 404.3 billion KRW last week. This was followed by SK Hynix with a net purchase of 185.2 billion KRW. Other stocks net purchased included HYBE (154.5 billion KRW), Kakao (151.6 billion KRW), SK Innovation (94.8 billion KRW), Kia (93.3 billion KRW), SK Telecom (90.0 billion KRW), Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction (76.5 billion KRW), Doosan Infracore (45.4 billion KRW), and Samsung Engineering (43.2 billion KRW).

The stock most sold by foreign investors last week was Samsung Electronics. Foreign investors net sold Samsung Electronics shares worth 437.4 billion KRW. This was followed by LG Chem with sales of 251.6 billion KRW. Other stocks in the top foreign net selling list included Samsung Electronics Preferred (144.5 billion KRW), Naver (909 billion KRW), KB Financial Group (63.2 billion KRW), POSCO (59.9 billion KRW), Hyundai Mobis (58.8 billion KRW), KT&G (52.4 billion KRW), Samsung Biologics (52.3 billion KRW), and LX Holdings (50.3 billion KRW).

As the Chinese yuan showed strength, the Korean won also followed suit, showing strength, which is expected to help attract foreign buying interest. Last week, the yuan exchange rate fell to 6.3 yuan per dollar, marking the lowest level in three years. A decline in the dollar-to-yuan exchange rate indicates a strengthening yuan. Lee Jaeseon, a researcher at Hana Financial Investment, said, "Since the financial crisis, the won has been the emerging market currency most correlated with the yuan after the Australian dollar. Since May, the won's relative strength against the yuan has been limited, but with the U.S. 10-year Treasury yield trapped in a range and the discount rate risk of emerging markets with a high proportion of tech stocks such as Korea and Taiwan gradually easing, it is time to pay attention to the possibility of won-yuan synchronization." Currently, the correlation between the won and the yuan stands at about 0.12 points, below the historical average of 0.54 points. The researcher added, "Won strength will increase the possibility of foreign investors entering with bargain buying. Since 2013, the won-dollar range where foreign net buying has been actively observed is below 1,160 won."

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