39% of KOSPI Market Owned by Foreigners
The Korea Financial Investment Association announced on Jan. 16 that foreign investors accounted for 38.9 percent of the aggregate value of the KOSPI stock market on Jan. 14, 585.98 trillion won out of 1,506.53 trillion won to be specific. The ratio is the highest since Aug. 8, 2006, when it reached 38.91 percent.
On Jan. 14, the aggregate value of the KOSPI stock market topped 1,500 trillion won for the first time in about 15 months. The ratio is continuing to increase this year. For reference, it was approximately 35 percent early last year, topped 40 percent in May 2006, and dropped to 27 percent or so in April 2009.
For the first nine trading days of this year, foreign investors posted a net buy of 1,814 billion won in the KOSPI stock market. They bought a lot of shares of Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix in particular on expectations that the global semiconductor market will show a recovery. During the period, they posted a net buy of 730.3 billion won and 39.4 billion won in the two largest companies in the stock market, respectively.
In the meantime, foreign investors accounted for 10.51 percent of the aggregate value of the KOSDAQ market on Jan. 14. Their market cap and the total of the market were 25,746.6 billion won and 244,889.1 billion won, respectively. The ratio, which had been around 9 percent in 2016, rose to 13 percent in January 2018 and fell to about 10 percent in May last year.