[Asia Economy Reporter Ji Yeon-jin] Foreign investors net purchased about 150 billion KRW worth of domestic stocks in the second week of this month. This is a significant decrease from nearly 1.7 trillion KRW in net purchases the previous week.
According to the Korea Exchange on the 14th, foreign investors net bought approximately 153 billion KRW worth of domestic stocks from the 8th to the 12th. They net purchased 226.9 billion KRW in the KOSPI market, while net selling about 73.8 billion KRW in the KOSDAQ market.
Foreign investors recorded net purchases of domestic stocks for the first time this year last month, followed by net purchases worth about 1.6756 trillion KRW in the first week of this month. However, their buying momentum somewhat slowed down last week.
During this period, the stock most purchased by foreign investors was LG Energy Solution, with net purchases worth 207.6 billion KRW. This was followed by Samsung SDI (182 billion KRW), Hyundai Motor (146.5 billion KRW), Celltrion (90.3 billion KRW), and Doosan Enerbility (87.3 billion KRW).
On the other hand, Samsung Electronics was the most sold stock, with net sales worth 527.8 billion KRW. This was followed by HMM (-53.4 billion KRW), EcoPro BM (-47.9 billion KRW), LG Innotek (-47.8 billion KRW), and Korea Zinc (-45.3 billion KRW).
Seo Jeong-hoon, a researcher at Samsung Securities, said, "The decline in the (U.S.) consumer and producer price indices announced last week contributed to concretizing the possibility that inflation has peaked," but added, "Since market concerns about the Fed's (U.S. Federal Reserve) high-intensity tightening remain, it should be seen as difficult for stock prices to rise based on multiple expansions under tight financial conditions for the time being."
He continued, "The environment is not easy for growth stocks' rebound to last long," and added, "If their upward trend is confirmed during the relief rally process, it is appropriate to consider them as targets for rebalancing rather than continuous holding, and we should wait until signals for interest rate cuts become clearer."
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