Foreigners Sell 'Palja' for 3 Consecutive Weeks... KOSDAQ Also Turns to 'Sell'

[Asia Economy Reporter Song Hwajeong] Foreign investors have continued a three-week selling streak in the domestic stock market. Even in the KOSDAQ market, where buying had persisted until last week, they have turned to 'selling.'

According to the Korea Exchange on the 28th, foreign investors net sold approximately 258 billion KRW in the domestic stock market during the week from the 22nd to the 26th. They sold 175.1 billion KRW in the KOSPI market and 83 billion KRW in the KOSDAQ market, respectively.

The stock most purchased by foreign investors last week was Samsung Electronics. Foreign investors net bought Samsung Electronics for 257.4 billion KRW last week. Following that, they purchased SK for 138.6 billion KRW. Other net purchases included SK Hynix (124 billion KRW), Celltrion (90.3 billion KRW), LG Household & Health Care (51.2 billion KRW), Kakao (41.1 billion KRW), Seegene (38.9 billion KRW), KMH (32 billion KRW), Samsung Electro-Mechanics (31.6 billion KRW), and ABL Bio (24.2 billion KRW).

The stock most sold by foreign investors last week was Naver (NAVER). Foreign investors net sold Naver for 168.7 billion KRW last week. They also sold LG Chem for 87.8 billion KRW. Other top net sales included Samsung Electronics Preferred Shares (75 billion KRW), Korea Electric Power Corporation (49.7 billion KRW), Shinhan Financial Group (45.2 billion KRW), Samsung Biologics (44.8 billion KRW), Samsung SDI (39.6 billion KRW), Macquarie Infrastructure (36.6 billion KRW), Hyundai Mobis (34.7 billion KRW), and Hotel Shilla (32.4 billion KRW).

It is analyzed that the environment makes it difficult to expect foreign investors to return to emerging markets in the short term. Lee Seunghyun, a researcher at Korea Investment & Securities, said, "It is difficult to expect a trend of capital inflow from foreign investors into emerging markets for the time being," adding, "Capital inflows into emerging markets will appear as a trend only when emerging market economic growth momentum revives and the global financial market stabilizes." However, currently, the gap in economic growth rates between emerging and developed countries is narrowing, and uncertainty in the global financial market remains high. The researcher added, "Moreover, the short-term interest rate gap between emerging and developed countries has been widening since hitting a low in April, making it difficult to expect capital inflows for the time being."