Foreigners' '1 Trillion Won Shopping Cart'... Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix "Swept Up the Semiconductor Top Two"

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Seon-ae] Last week (18th-22nd), the domestic stock market closed at 2,393.14, up 2.7% from the previous week. Despite simultaneous selling by individuals and institutions, foreigners supported the index by net buying nearly 1 trillion won (approximately 967.3 billion won). What stocks were in the foreigners' shopping basket during this period?

According to the Korea Exchange on the 24th, foreigners focused on buying the semiconductor "two-tops," Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix. SK Hynix ranked first in net purchases on the KOSPI market, followed by Samsung Electronics in second place. The net purchase amounts were 207.7 billion won and 186.5 billion won, respectively. There is an assessment that investment sentiment toward semiconductor stocks has generally improved due to strong earnings announcements such as TSMC's record quarterly sales in Q2 this year and expectations for the passage of semiconductor industry promotion legislation.

Next, net purchases continued mainly in large-cap stocks such as secondary batteries and automobiles. These include LG Chem, Hyundai Motor, HMM, NAVER, KT, Hyundai Mobis, and Kia.

In the KOSDAQ market, the top net purchase stock was the secondary battery company L&F, with purchases worth 23.7 billion won. Following were Naturecell, EcoPro, Baxel Bio, Access Bio, Celltrion Healthcare, Nexon Games, ISEMS, Humasis, and KMW in order.

In the securities industry, it is viewed that foreigners are injecting funds as they judge the domestic stock market to have price attractiveness amid a continued downward trend. The rise in the won-dollar exchange rate compared to the dollar index has also slowed, leading to an analysis that foreigners are leading a cyclical rebound.

Choi Yoo-jun, a researcher at Shinhan Financial Investment, said, “Foreign demand tends to switch to net buying after confirming the price-to-book ratio (PBR) bottom while the KOSPI falls below book value.” He added, “Since 2000, in eight cases, after confirming the PBR bottom, foreigners switched to net buying on average four weeks later, and this time will be no different.”

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