Foreigners Buy 'Saja' in Just One Week... Samsung Electronics Most Purchased for 4 Consecutive Weeks

[Asia Economy Reporter Song Hwajeong] Foreign investors have turned to net buying in the domestic stock market within just one week.

According to the Korea Exchange on the 19th, foreign investors net purchased approximately 714.3 billion KRW in the domestic stock market during the week from the 13th to the 17th. Foreign investors bought 744.2 billion KRW in the KOSPI market but sold 27.4 billion KRW in the KOSDAQ market.

The stock most purchased by foreign investors last week was Samsung Electronics. Foreign investors net bought Samsung Electronics worth 409.8 billion KRW last week, marking the fourth consecutive week of the largest purchases of Samsung Electronics. Following that, they bought LG shares worth 349.9 billion KRW. Other net purchases included SK Hynix (196.2 billion KRW), Samsung Biologics (164.2 billion KRW), Krafton (121.2 billion KRW), SK Telecom (58.6 billion KRW), HMM (53.2 billion KRW), Shinhan Financial Group (36.8 billion KRW), KakaoBank (31.7 billion KRW), and Vidente (31.4 billion KRW).

The stock most sold by foreign investors last week was SK Square. Foreign investors net sold SK Square worth 126.1 billion KRW last week, marking the third consecutive week of the largest sales. Next was Naver (NAVER), with net sales of 116.5 billion KRW. Other top net sales by foreign investors included LG Electronics (91.0 billion KRW), Samsung SDI (85.4 billion KRW), NCSoft (82.7 billion KRW), LG Innotek (60.0 billion KRW), Kakao (55.5 billion KRW), SK Innovation (51.4 billion KRW), Hyundai Motor (50.2 billion KRW), and LG Chem (50.2 billion KRW).

Given that foreign investors are sensitive to momentum and considering the possibility of a momentum rebound, it is expected that the net buying trend will shift toward large-cap stocks. Kim Byung-yeon, a researcher at NH Investment & Securities, stated, "Regarding top-down momentum, the global leading economic index has been declining for four consecutive months from August to November, but this is considered to reflect bottleneck issues in the second half of this year. With recent improvements in the PMI transportation index, a rebound in the global leading economic index similar to 2011 is expected." He added, "As for earnings momentum, it is difficult to expect a large expansion of momentum like this year, but the decline in earnings momentum, which is a major cause of the box market, is coming to an end." The 12-month forward earnings per share (EPS) growth rate of the KOSPI is currently at past low levels, and the 3-month EPS change rate for 2022 is turning around. Researcher Kim added, "Considering the possibility of a momentum rebound, the behavior of foreign investors is also expected to shift to a net buying trend focused on large-cap stocks related to the index."

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