The KOSDAQ, KOSPI and the won-dollar exchange rate are shown on the screens inside a dealing room at Hana Bank in Seoul on April 4, 2023. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, April 10 (Korea Bizwire) — Retail investors from South Korea, who tend to seek high returns by tolerating high volatility, have sold off shares of NASDAQ-listed tech companies, data showed Sunday.
Domestic investors purchased smartphone behemoth Apple Inc.’s shares worth US$582.1 million during the period from January 1 to April 7, according to data from the Korea Securities Depository (KSD).
During the same period, they sold $807.4 million worth of Apple shares, resulting in net selling of $225.3 million.
They also net sold $46 million in shares of graphics chip giant Nvidia Corp., $70.1 million in shares of Meta Platforms Inc., the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, $14.7 million in shares of Alphabet Inc., the holding company of Google Inc., and $53 million for Dutch semiconductor equipment maker ASML Holding N.V.
“In recent days, multiple giant themes such as secondary batteries, artificial intelligence and robotics have emerged simultaneously in the South Korea’s KOSDAQ market, which are drawing attention from retail investors,” said analyst Jung Myung-ji of Samsung Securities.
According to the KSD, domestic investors net bought $899 million worth of U.S. stocks in the first three months of this year, a volume equivalent to one eighth of a year ago.
In contrast, the KOSDAQ market saw its transaction volume reach about 596 trillion won (US$451.9 billion) in the January-March period of this year, up 16 percent year on year.
In particular, the March transaction volume marked a strong year to year growth of 51 percent.
J. S. Shin (js_shin@koreabizwire.com)
