Kiwoom Securities 100,000 Won Also at Risk Due to Ant Contraction

Net Selling of 3.097 Trillion Won This Month... Lowest Level of the Year Decline

[Asia Economy Reporter Song Hwajeong] As trading volume decreased due to a decline in retail investors' sentiment, Kiwoom Securities' stock price fell to its lowest level of the year.

According to the Korea Exchange on the 30th, Kiwoom Securities recorded a 52-week low, dropping to 100,000 KRW during intraday trading. Since the second half of the year, Kiwoom Securities' price broke below the 130,000 KRW level and has been trading below 110,000 KRW since last month. The bearish trend continues, putting the 100,000 KRW level at risk.

The weakness in Kiwoom Securities is interpreted as a result of weakened sentiment among retail investors. Retail investors have net sold 3.097 trillion KRW from the beginning of this month until the day before. This is the first month this year that retail investors have recorded net selling on a monthly basis. Due to the decline in retail investor sentiment, trading volume has also decreased. According to NH Investment & Securities, the average daily trading volume of domestic stocks this year has decreased from 33.5 trillion KRW in Q1, 27 trillion KRW in Q2, 26.2 trillion KRW in Q3, to 22 trillion KRW currently in Q4.

Securities firms have also been lowering their target prices for Kiwoom Securities one after another. NH Investment & Securities lowered Kiwoom Securities' target price from 200,000 KRW to 160,000 KRW. SK Securities also cut it from 165,000 KRW to 140,000 KRW. Junseop Jeong, a researcher at NH Investment & Securities, said, "As Kiwoom Securities is the number one securities firm in retail stock trading market share, the burden from the recent slowdown in stock trading volume is inevitable. Additionally, fintech securities firm Toss Securities is rapidly expanding its market share based on high attention, and with Kakao Pay Securities launching stock trading services (MTS) next year, competition in retail stock trading will intensify compared to before."

However, despite these concerns, there is an opinion that the current stock price level is excessively undervalued. Kyunghoe Koo, a researcher at SK Securities, said, "From a long-term perspective, it is reasonable that Kiwoom Securities, which relies heavily on brokerage, has a lower price-to-earnings ratio (PER) compared to competitors, but the recent PER of around 4 times in 2022 indicates that the current stock price is excessively low. For the time being, it will continue to be the most sensitive stock within the securities sector to the stock market," he said.

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