K Semiconductor Sold by Retail Investors in Plunging Market... Foreigners Scoop Up

Foreigners Net Buyers for 4 Consecutive Trading Days
Focused Buying of SK Hynix 585 Billion KRW and Samsung Electronics 335.9 Billion KRW

[Asia Economy Reporter Kwon Jae-hee] Amid a continued plunge in the market due to concerns over early tightening in the U.S. and the Ukraine crisis, individual investors have been found to have heavily sold semiconductor stocks. On the other hand, foreign investors have been actively buying during this period. Essentially, foreign investors have picked up all the semiconductor stocks that individual investors sold off.

According to the Korea Exchange on the 15th, the KOSPI closed at 2,704.48, down 43.23 points from the previous day. When the KOSPI briefly fell below the 2,700 mark during the session, individual investors net sold stocks worth 186.9 billion KRW. Conversely, foreign investors net bought stocks worth 70.7 billion KRW.

In the sharp decline market, foreign investors engaged in concentrated net buying. They have net bought for four consecutive trading days from the 9th to the previous day. This is the first time since early this year (January 3-7) that foreign investors have net bought for four consecutive trading days.

Foreign investors mainly focused on leading semiconductor stocks. SK Hynix was the top net purchase by foreign investors, with 585 billion KRW worth acquired. Samsung Electronics followed with 335.9 billion KRW worth bought. Notably, SK Hynix has seen nine consecutive trading days of net buying since the 28th of last month. This is the longest consecutive net buying streak since November 1-11 of last year.

Meanwhile, during the same period, SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics were the stocks most heavily sold by individual investors. Individual investors sold 791.6 billion KRW worth of SK Hynix and 289.9 billion KRW worth of Samsung Electronics. This shows a significant gap compared to the third-ranked KODEX Leverage, which saw 137.3 billion KRW sold.

The securities industry has raised target prices for SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics. Ebest Investment & Securities maintained a buy rating on SK Hynix and raised the target price to 133,000 KRW. Kiwoom Securities maintained a buy rating on Samsung Electronics and raised the target price to 100,000 KRW.

Researcher Kim Young-woo of Eugene Investment & Securities said, "We maintain a buy rating on SK Hynix and raise the target price to 160,000 KRW. While the operating profit contribution from the DRAM segment is absolute, the competitiveness of the NAND segment is continuously improving, and considering the excellent dividend policy that takes shareholders into account, the stock is very undervalued."

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