Institutional Investors Purchase Stocks

Foreign investors continue to offload South Korean stocks. 

Foreign investors dumped South Korean stocks worth a total of 987.6 billion won on March 10 after their largest net selling in the KOSPI market, 1,321.5 billion won, recorded the previous day. On March 10, South Korean institutional investors purchased a large amount of shares in the market.

This month alone, foreign investors sold stocks worth 3.95 trillion won in the KOSPI market with COVID-19 spreading across the world. Uncertainties related to oil prices added fuel to the fire. On March 9, U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for delivery in April fell 24.58 percent to US$31.13 per barrel.

Meanwhile, institutional investors posted the first net buy in six trading days. Specifically, the net purchase volume totaled 611.2 billion won with financial investment companies and pension funds purchasing stocks worth 503.4 billion won and 181.5 billion won, respectively. Under the circumstances, it is expected that the institutional investors are likely to continue to buy stocks and they will act as a safety valve like they did in August and September last year, when the index moved below 2,000 points due to U.S.-China trade disputes and Japan’s export curbs against South Korea.

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