South Korean Retail Investors Buy Over $7 Billion in U.S. Stocks Amid KOSPI Correction

SEOUL, Aug. 30 (Yonhap) -- South Korean individual investors purchased over US$7 billion worth of U.S. stocks over the past two months amid a correction in the local equity market, industry data showed Sunday.

Retail investors bought a net $7.04 billion worth of stocks in the U.S. market from July 1 through Thursday, according to data from the online portal operated by the Korea Securities Depository.

Over the same period, they purchased a net 8.75 trillion won ($6.34 billion) in the benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) market and a net 1.57 trillion won in the secondary KOSDAQ market.

In the United States, individuals bought a net $4.64 billion in July and $2.4 billion during the first 27 days of August. The two-month total was equivalent to 70 percent of their net purchases in the first half of the year, which totaled $9.87 billion.

The shift came as the KOSPI underwent a correction after hitting a record closing high of 9,114.55 points on June 22.

The index dropped to the 7,000-point level on the second trading day of July and has hovered in the 6,000-point range for more than a month since mid-July.

Meanwhile, U.S. stocks remained relatively strong, with the S&P 500 rising from 7,499.36 points at the end of June to 7,730.99 on Thursday. The Nasdaq Composite also gained from 26,213.72 to 26,541.35 over the same period.

Direxion Daily Semiconductor Bull 3X Shares (SOXL), a leveraged exchange-traded fund (ETF) that seeks to deliver three times the daily performance of the ICE Semiconductor Index, was the top pick among Korean investors during the two-month period, with net purchases of $3 billion.

They also bought a net $815.42 million worth of SK hynix American depositary receipts (ADRs), $647.17 million of Alphabet and $514.96 million of SpaceX.

In contrast, they sold a net $748.9 million worth of Nvidia shares, $615.4 million of Palantir Technologies shares and $353.93 million of Micron Technology shares.

"Increasing volatility in the KOSPI and losses in semiconductor shares encourage investment in the U.S.," Shin Seung-jin, a researcher at Samsung Securities, said.