Picky Eaters
The Korea Exchange announced on March 10 that institutional investors sold KOSPI shares worth 203.7 billion won (US$180.6 million) that day, to continue net sales for the ninth consecutive trading day. Their net selling amount in the KOSPI reached 1.5334 trillion won (US$1.3591 billion) for the nine-day period since Feb. 26, and 669 billion won in January. On March 10, individual and foreign investors bought shares worth 117.9 billion won (US$104.5 million) and 79.9 billion won (US$70.8 million) each, but the institutional investors’ sale dragged down the index by 0.4 percent to 1,984.77 points.
The institutional investors sold a number of SK Hynix (343.8 billion won, US$304.7 million), SK Telecom (97.7 billion won, US$86.6 million) and SK Innovation (91.1 billion won, US$80.8 million) shares during the nine days. In the KOSDAQ, they sold 67.3 billion won (US$59.7 million) worth of Daum Kakao shares, too. Daum Kakao is the company with the highest market cap in the bourse.
The institutional investors, in the meantime, bought a large number of Samsung Group shares during the same period. The net purchase amounted to 107.1 billion won (US$94.9 million) for Samsung SDS, 83.6 billion won (US$84.1 million) for Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance, 73.4 billion won (US$65.1 million) for Cheil Industries, 72.1 billion won (US$63.9 million) for Samsung Electronics, 52 billion won (US$46.1 million) for Samsung SDI, and 32.9 billion won (US$29.2 million) for Samsung Electro-Mechanics.
“It seems that institutional investors are now focusing more on undervalued IT and exporter stocks and those relating to the Samsung Group’s governance structure, than on certain issues with foreign funds continuing to flow into the domestic stock market,” said Kim Yong-koo at Samsung Securities.