Foreigners Net Buyers for 2 Consecutive Weeks... KOSDAQ Continues 'Selling' Trend

[Asia Economy Reporter Song Hwajeong] Foreign investors continued their 'buying' trend for two consecutive weeks. However, in the KOSDAQ market, they maintained a 'selling' trend for three consecutive weeks.

According to the Korea Exchange on the 19th, foreign investors net purchased approximately 447.4 billion KRW in the domestic stock market during the week from the 13th to the 17th. They bought 500.9 billion KRW in the KOSPI market but sold 53.8 billion KRW in the KOSDAQ market.

The stock most purchased by foreign investors last week was Samsung SDI. Foreign investors net bought 108 billion KRW worth of Samsung SDI last week. This was followed by POSCO, with purchases totaling 60.6 billion KRW. Other stocks net purchased included Hotel Shilla (59 billion KRW), Samsung Electronics (57.1 billion KRW), SK Telecom (45.4 billion KRW), NCSoft (43.5 billion KRW), Kakao (39.8 billion KRW), Samsung Electro-Mechanics (39.4 billion KRW), LG Chem (36.6 billion KRW), and LG Display (28.1 billion KRW).

The stock most sold by foreign investors last week was SK Innovation. Foreign investors net sold 58.3 billion KRW worth of SK Innovation last week. This was followed by Celltrion, which was sold for 52 billion KRW. Other top stocks sold by foreign investors included Hyundai Motor (51.5 billion KRW), LG Uplus (42.1 billion KRW), Kia Motors (38.2 billion KRW), HL Biopharma (35.9 billion KRW), S-Oil (34 billion KRW), HanAll Biopharma (15.8 billion KRW), Celltrion Pharm (15 billion KRW), and UniTest (14.2 billion KRW).

As foreign investors' market dominance expands, there is a high possibility that stock prices will fluctuate according to their movements. Choi Yujun, a researcher at Shinhan Financial Investment, stated, "The net buying amount by foreign investors tends to coincide with momentum indicators," adding, "Since January 2019, except for three periods of Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) rebalancing, the cumulative net buying amount by foreign investors and momentum have shown a concurrent trend. With the expansion of foreign investors' market dominance, the influence of momentum strategies is expected to increase." Researcher Choi also noted, "A concentration of supply and demand is expected in specific sectors such as semiconductors, media & entertainment, and hotel & leisure," and added, "Attention is also needed for IT hardware (H/W), durable consumer goods, and electronic & electrical products sectors, where recent foreign net buying and momentum rebounds have appeared."