KOSPI Individual Net Purchases Already 50 Trillion This Year... Surpassing Last Year's Annual Scale

Net Buying Exceeding 8 Trillion Won Over the Last 4 Trading Days

On the afternoon of the 14th, employees are working in the dealing room at the Hana Bank headquarters in Jung-gu, Seoul.
[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Minwoo Lee] Individual investors in the KOSPI market have net purchased stocks worth over 50 trillion won. This surpasses last year's annual net purchase amount in just about four and a half months.

According to the Korea Exchange on the 16th, individuals have net purchased a total of 50.9836 trillion won worth of stocks from the beginning of this year until the 14th. This amount exceeds last year's total net purchase amount of 47.4907 trillion won. Since January last year, individuals have purchased a total of 98.4742 trillion won. Following the sharp rise in the market after COVID-19, individual investors appear to be actively entering the stock market.

The investment enthusiasm was strongest at the beginning of the year. In January, when the KOSPI surpassed the 3,000 mark for the first time in history, individuals net purchased 22.3384 trillion won worth of stocks. Afterwards, as the index somewhat stalled, the amounts decreased to 8.4381 trillion won in February, 6.9402 trillion won in March, and 5.8355 trillion won in April.

However, this month, as the KOSPI recorded an all-time closing high of 3,249.30 on May 10 and the market rebounded, individuals purchased 7.0269 trillion won worth of stocks in just half a month. In particular, from May 11 to 14, when the KOSPI slightly stalled and then rebounded, individuals net purchased a remarkable 8.3966 trillion won worth of stocks. This is regarded as the force that prevented the index from falling despite consecutive sell-offs by foreigners and institutions.

Since new funds enter the market each time companies going public (IPO) offer general subscriptions, it is analyzed that personal capital inflow will continue through subscriptions of major companies such as KakaoBank and Krafton in the future.

In fact, in March, the general subscription for SK Bioscience's public offering attracted 63.6 trillion won, and last month, SK IE Technology (SKIET) subscriptions attracted 80.9017 trillion won. Additionally, there is speculation that personal funds that had moved to somewhat sluggish overseas markets such as the U.S. and China may flow back into the domestic stock market. However, concerns have been raised that if the stock market continues to stagnate, individual investors' sentiment may turn negative.