Foreigners Who Sold 7 Trillion Won This Month Bought Secondary Batteries in the Second Round

Samsung SDI Leads with 683.8 Billion Won... 3 of Top 5 Are Secondary Battery Stocks

On the morning of the 30th, the KOSPI and KRW-USD exchange rate are displayed on the status board in the dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Euljiro, Jung-gu, Seoul. [Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Minwoo Lee] Despite foreign investors selling off more than 7 trillion won worth of stocks this month alone, the secondary battery sector continued to be steadily purchased. It appears that they judged the sector to still have significant growth potential, along with abundant momentum due to ongoing eco-friendly policies and schedules in the near future.

According to the Korea Exchange on the 30th, foreign investors have net sold a total of 7.1269 trillion won in the KOSPI market from the beginning of this month through the 29th. This accounts for 24% of the total net sales of 29.4445 trillion won for the entire year. They sold more than 2 trillion won compared to last month's net sales of 5.0725 trillion won. This is the largest monthly net sale since May, when it reached 8.491 trillion won.

Nevertheless, there was a sector that foreign investors consistently bought: secondary batteries. Since the beginning of this month, foreign investors purchased Samsung SDI the most, with a net purchase of 683.8 billion won. This is about 1.5 times more than the second-ranked KakaoBank’s 459.5 billion won net purchase. Except for two trading days, on the 4th and 27th, they consistently net bought every day. SK IE Technology, which produces separators, a core material for secondary batteries, and EcoPro BM, an anode material manufacturer, ranked 4th (180.6 billion won) and 5th (171.4 billion won) respectively in foreign net purchases. LG Chem also ranked 7th with a net purchase of 121.6 billion won. Despite a large-scale additional recall cost issue related to General Motors (GM)’s Chevrolet Bolt EV vehicles in the U.S., which caused foreign investors to net sell 493.8 billion won in just two days, these companies still ranked high.

While the semiconductor sector has been relatively sluggish, the growth potential of the electric vehicle market remains solid, indicating that investment sentiment has not weakened. Momentum from domestic and international eco-friendly infrastructure investments and policies is also expected to continue next month.

Jae-hyun Jung, a researcher at DB Financial Investment, explained, "The electric vehicle market, which has traditionally grown centered on China, is rapidly expanding in countries outside China thanks to the cooperation of eco-friendly policies worldwide. Major automakers are also participating in this market movement by establishing mid- to long-term electrification strategies. LG Energy Solution, Samsung SDI, and SK Innovation are planning aggressive capacity expansions, so the secondary battery-anode material value chain centered on these three companies in Korea will become increasingly robust."

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