Since Last Year, Individuals Have Bought 100 Trillion Won Worth of Domestic Stocks

Samsung Electronics Net Purchase of 31 Trillion Won... Share Approaches 30%
Investor Deposits Decrease by 10 Trillion Won Compared to Last Month

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Minji Lee] Despite the weak stock market, individual investors' net buying momentum has continued, with the total net purchase amount by individuals since the COVID-19 outbreak nearing 100 trillion won.

According to the Korea Exchange on the 28th, individual investors have purchased stocks worth a total of 99.238 trillion won in the domestic stock market from January last year to this month. This means that over the 14 months since the first confirmed COVID-19 case in Korea in January last year, individuals bought an average of about 7 trillion won worth of stocks per month.

In the KOSPI market, they accumulated stocks worth 78.267 trillion won, and in the KOSDAQ market, they also net purchased nearly 21 trillion won (20.9708 trillion won). During the same period, foreigners sold stocks worth 32.7032 trillion won in the KOSPI and KOSDAQ markets, and institutions sold stocks worth 61.63 trillion won.

Individuals maintained a net buying streak in the KOSDAQ market for 14 consecutive months and recorded net purchases in the KOSPI market for 13 months, except for November last year (net selling of 2.7835 trillion won). After purchasing 63.8083 trillion won worth of stocks last year, they increased their buying scale this year by net buying over 35 trillion won (35.4298 trillion won) in just two months. In January alone, they purchased stocks worth 22.3384 trillion won in the KOSPI market. Although net purchases this month amounted to 8.4381 trillion won, which is less than last month, it was the third-largest purchase volume except for January this year and March last year (11.1869 trillion won).

Among the 100 trillion won in net purchases, individuals bought more than 30 trillion won (31.3144 trillion won) worth of Samsung Electronics, including preferred shares. This accounts for nearly one-third of the total purchase amount. They invested a total of 7.794 trillion won in major Hyundai Motor Group companies such as Hyundai Motor (3.6581 trillion won), Kia (2.0153 trillion won), and Hyundai Mobis (2.032 trillion won). NAVER (1.8943 trillion won), SK Hynix (1.3702 trillion won), and Kakao (1.0122 trillion won) were also net purchased by more than 1 trillion won. On the other hand, LG Chem was net sold by more than 1 trillion won (1.1182 trillion won).

However, individual investors' buying power seems to have decreased since last month. The investor deposit funds, which serve as buying standby funds, stand at 65 trillion won, double that of a year ago, but have decreased by nearly 10 trillion won for about six consecutive weeks since reaching 74 trillion won on the 12th. In the securities industry, there are opinions that if individuals' buying power decreases from a supply-demand perspective, the support for the lower bound of the index may weaken. Lee Jaeman, a researcher at Hana Financial Investment, said, “As deposit funds decrease, the liquidity expansion effect of individuals is weakening,” and added, “With the slowdown in the dollar's depreciation, expectations for foreign investors' supply-demand improvement in the domestic stock market are also weak.”