Seohak Ant's US stock holdings approach $200 billion... Investment in technology stocks expands amid AI optimism

(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Go Eun-ji = The U.S. stock holdings of Seohak Ant, an individual investor who invests in the U.S. stock market, are once again approaching $200 billion.

According to Savero, the securities information portal of the Korea Securities Depository on the 25th, the amount of US stocks held by domestic investors from the 1st to the 21st (based on the date of inquiry) was calculated to be $197.47874 billion (about 268.571 trillion won).

After reaching a record high of $204.1672 billion in May, U.S. stock holdings decreased for two consecutive months to $194.84793 billion in June and $171.4658 billion in July. However, after rebounding to $188.36649 billion in August, it increased to $197.5 billion this month.

The reason why Seohak Ant's U.S. stock holdings are increasing again is because the U.S. stock market is showing signs of recovery, led by technology stocks, thanks to optimism about artificial intelligence (AI).

Domestic investors made a net purchase of $527.3 million (about 717.1 billion won) in the U.S. stock market from the 1st to the 22nd.

In September, it showed a net selling trend until the 17th, but switched to a net buying trend after the 14th, showing that the buying trend in the US stock market is gradually getting stronger.

The stock purchased the most by Seohak Ant this month (1st to 22nd) was 'SGOV' (ISHARES 0-3 MONTH TREASURY BOND ETF), which invests in short-term US government bonds with a maturity of 3 months or less. This product is attracting attention as a ‘parking type’ ETF where funds are placed for a while before deciding on an investment destination.

Seohak Ant made a net purchase of $223.56 million (approximately 304.4 billion won) of SGOV.

He then bought a lot of Schwab US DIVIDEND EQUITY ETF ($146.2 million), Vanguard S&P 500 ($140.45 million) ETF, IonQ ($123.48 million), and Alphabet ($120.61 million).

Recently, as expectations for AI and semiconductors have recovered, a large amount of funds are flowing into U.S. semiconductor leveraged products.

SOXL (DIREXION DAILY SEMICONDUCTORS BULL 3X SHS ETF), a leveraged ETF that tracks the U.S. semiconductor index 3 times, purchased $2.51384 billion (approximately 3.3274 trillion won) over the past month (1st to 22nd). In terms of ‘purchase’ scale, it is the largest among all stocks.

Experts advised to construct a portfolio while keeping an eye on major issues such as geopolitical risks, the US-China summit (September 24, local time), and the US midterm elections (November 3).

Park Seung-jin, a researcher at Hana Securities, said, "With the conclusion of the U.S. Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) and Bank of Japan (BOJ) financial policy decision meeting last week, we have entered a phase where we can put aside our caution about monetary policy for a while."