Foreigners Turn to 'Palja' After Just 4 Weeks

[Asia Economy Reporter Song Hwajeong] Foreign investors turned to net selling in the domestic stock market for the first time in four weeks.

According to the Korea Exchange on the 17th, foreign investors net sold approximately 1.3709 trillion KRW in the domestic stock market during the week from the 11th to the 15th. They sold 1.2491 trillion KRW in the KOSPI market and 121.8 billion KRW in the KOSDAQ market, respectively.

The stock most purchased by foreign investors last week was LG Chem. Foreign investors net bought LG Chem for 246.7 billion KRW last week, marking the second consecutive week as the top purchase. Following that, they bought Kakao for 208.9 billion KRW. Other net purchases included Hana Financial Group (109.6 billion KRW), Shinhan Financial Group (88.0 billion KRW), Naver (NAVER, 84.4 billion KRW), LG (80.7 billion KRW), KB Financial Group (77.5 billion KRW), Samsung C&T (72.1 billion KRW), Amorepacific (51.3 billion KRW), and NCSoft (40.1 billion KRW).

The stock most sold by foreign investors last week was Samsung Electronics. Foreign investors net sold Samsung Electronics for 997.6 billion KRW last week. They also sold Samsung Electronics Preferred shares for 738.1 billion KRW. Other top net sales included Celltrion (243.7 billion KRW), Hyundai Mobis (201.2 billion KRW), Hyundai Motor (184.5 billion KRW), Celltrion Healthcare (170.3 billion KRW), Samsung SDI (99.9 billion KRW), Samsung Biologics (67.3 billion KRW), Kia Motors (66.2 billion KRW), and LG Electronics (46.8 billion KRW).

On the 15th, with the KOSPI falling more than 2%, it is analyzed that foreign investors’ profit-taking influenced the market. Seo Sangyoung, a researcher at Kiwoom Securities, said, "Foreign investors have been selling mainly semiconductor and automobile stocks, which had driven the Korean stock market, leading to a wider decline in the index," adding, "Market changes are expected depending on the trends of foreign investors’ spot and especially futures trading."