This photo, taken on April 7, 2020, shows the outdoor signage of Samsung Electronics Co. at its office building in Seoul. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, Sept. 2 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korean retail investors have net-bought more than 2 trillion won worth of shares in top-cap Samsung Electronics Co. over the past month amid massive selling by foreigners and institutions, data showed Wednesday.
Individual investors’ net purchase of Samsung Electronics traded on the main stock market came to 2.01 trillion won (US$1.7 billion) between Aug. 3 and Tuesday, according to the data from the Korea Exchange.
In contrast, foreign investors and domestic institutions sold a net 878.4 billion won and 1.2 trillion won worth of Samsung Electronics shares, respectively, over the cited period.
In particular, domestic retail investors’ net buying of Samsung Electronics reached 553.6 billion won Monday, when offshore investors dumped Samsung shares worth 543.2 billion won.
Retail investors’ net buying of Samsung lasted for 10 straight sessions starting Aug. 19, the longest this year since a 13-day buying streak in March.
Individual investors’ buying spree came despite Samsung’s sluggish share price stemming from concerns over the outlook of the world semiconductor industry. Samsung is the world’s top memory chip maker.
The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) shot up 61 percent between Monday and its yearly low in March, while Samsung rose nearly 28 percent over the cited period.
“Samsung Electronics underperformed the market as spot prices of DRAM chips started to drop in April, sparking uncertainty over the company’s future earnings,” KB Securities analyst Kim Dong-won said.
Despite heavy selling by foreigners and institutions, retail investors’ massive buying propped up Samsung’s share price, which moved in a range of 54,000 won to 59,000 won over the last month.
Market watchers said Samsung and other chipmakers may see their share prices go up down the road once worries about the chip business outlook disappear.
(Yonhap)
