Getting More Aggressive
Korea Exchange announced on Oct. 6 that individual investors net-bought 58.8 trillion won of KOSPI and KOSDAQ stocks for the first nine months of this year, while foreign and institutional investors’ net selling totaled 29,449.2 billion won and 28,718.1 billion won, respectively. In KOSPI, individual investors net-bought 45,353.6 billion won of stocks in that period whereas they net-sold 7,280.9 billion won of stocks in the same period of the previous year.
Individual investors have increased their participation in the stock market since March, when it plunged amid COVID-19. These days, they are becoming increasingly aggressive. For example, they accounted for 71.2 percent of the total trading last month and the ratio topped 70 percent for the third consecutive month. Given that the average daily trading value was 14.2 trillion won last month, individual investors’ trading amounted to more than 10 trillion won. In addition, the ratio exceeding 70 percent for three months in a row was for the first time since the third quarter of 2002.
Their aggressive stance has been witnessed in the IPO market, too. No less than 44 companies, including Kakao Games and SK Biopharmaceuticals, went public in the third quarter alone and the quarterly total IPO value hit an all-time high of 3,196.8 billion won.
The aggressive move, however, is likely to subside in the fourth quarter. This is because some securities companies no longer offer credit and the stock transfer income tax will be increased next year.