Will Retail Investors Surpass the 'COVID-19 Crash' of Five Years Ago... 21 Trillion Won Net Purchases This Month

Net Buying Poised to Surpass Record Set During the "Donghak Ant Movement"

Borrowed Funds and Big Investors Join the Trend... Inflows Expected to Continue Long-Term

With the KOSPI surpassing the 6000 mark for the first time in history, retail investors are returning to the Korean stock market.

On the 25th, when the KOSPI closed above 6000 points for the first time in history, employees were celebrating inside the dealing room at the Hana Bank headquarters in Jung-gu, Seoul. On that day, the KOSPI index closed at 6083.86, up 114.22 points (1.91%) from the previous session. 2026.2.25 Photo by Yongjun Cho

According to the Korea Exchange on the 22nd, individual investors purchased 21.8293 trillion won in stocks on the KOSPI market between the beginning of this month and the 20th.

There are projections that this will surpass the previous record for the largest net purchases set in January 2021, about five years ago. At that time, during the COVID-19 pandemic, foreigners and institutions engaged in massive sell-offs, causing the domestic stock market to plunge. In response, the so-called 'Donghak Ant Movement' emerged, with individuals making net purchases of 22.3384 trillion won over the course of a month to support the KOSPI.

With seven trading days remaining this month, if retail investors continue their buying momentum, there are expectations that net purchases could exceed 30 trillion won for the first time ever.

The return of individual investors to the domestic stock market is also evident in other areas. As the prices of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin have stagnated recently, the average daily transaction value at the five major domestic coin exchanges has fallen by more than 30% compared to last month.

Additionally, according to the Korea Securities Depository’s Securities Information Portal (SEIBro) and other sources, as the New York stock market has also been sluggish, the net purchases of U.S. stocks by domestic investors amounted to only 69 million dollars (approximately 10.33 billion won) between the start of this month and the 19th. This is a significant decrease compared to January and February, when net purchases reached 5 billion dollars (about 753 billion won) and 4 billion dollars (about 626 billion won), respectively.

As of the 18th, the value of U.S. stocks held by so-called 'Seohak Ants' stood at a total of 160.9 billion dollars (about 241 trillion won), down from 163.9 billion dollars (about 245 trillion won) last month.

Not only cryptocurrencies and U.S. stocks, but also deposits and loans have shown some movement into the stock market. As of the 5th, the time deposits at the five major banks totaled 944 trillion won, a decrease of 2.7 trillion won compared to the end of last month. In demand deposits, which serve as idle funds awaiting investment opportunities, 8.6 trillion won has flowed out during the same period. Given that deposit interest rates have generally been rising recently, analysts suggest that a significant portion of the decrease in deposits has shifted to investment demand seeking higher returns than interest rates.

'Debt-based investing' also appears to be on the rise. As of the 12th, the total household loan balance at the five major banks (KB Kookmin, Shinhan, Hana, Woori, and NH Nonghyup) increased by 684.7 billion won compared to the end of February. While mortgage loans declined by 830 billion won due to government real estate regulations, unsecured loans surged by more than 1.4 trillion won. In particular, the balance of revolving credit lines actually used by individuals increased by 1.3 trillion won just this month. This is the largest increase in about five years and three months, since November 2020.

Experts predict that this trend of retail investors returning to the domestic stock market will continue in the mid- to long-term.

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