Foreign investors dump nearly W200tr from Kospi this year — Samsung Electronics, SK hynix account for W173tr

Foreign investors have net sold nearly 200 trillion won ($149 billion) worth of Kospi-listed stocks since the start of the year, with SK hynix and Samsung Electronics alone accounting for more than 173 trillion won of that total. ETFs, however, have seen consistent net purchases throughout the period.

According to Korea Exchange, foreign investors — excluding other foreign entities — net sold a combined 199.1 trillion won worth of Kospi-listed stocks, excluding ETFs, from Jan. 2 through Monday.

Breaking down the figures by month, foreign investors net bought 118.6 billion won in January and 1.13 trillion won in April, while recording net sales of 21 trillion won in February, 35.88 trillion won in March, 44.71 trillion won in May, 48.62 trillion won in June, 9.89 trillion won in July, 10.18 trillion won in August and 21.52 trillion won in September.

Net purchases were recorded only in January and April; all other months saw net selling. The selling streak has continued for five consecutive months since May.

So far this month, from Oct. 1 through Monday, foreign investors net sold an additional 8.46 trillion won. The selling has been concentrated particularly in large-cap semiconductor stocks such as Samsung Electronics and SK hynix.

SK hynix was the most net-sold stock by foreign investors this year, with 87.14 trillion won in net sales. Samsung Electronics followed at 86.06 trillion won, Hyundai Motor at 11.39 trillion won and SK Square at 7.33 trillion won.

While foreign investor sentiment in the broader Kospi market has shown little sign of recovery, the ETF market has told a different story.

Foreign investors' net purchases of domestically listed ETFs totaled 9.66 trillion won from the start of the year through Monday.

Net purchases were recorded every month: 151.4 billion won in January, 640.2 billion won in February, 735.5 billion won in March, 1.12 trillion won in April, 648 billion won in May, 3.51 trillion won in June, 1.26 trillion won in July, 373.8 billion won in August and 1.15 trillion won in September.

This month, from Oct. 1 through Monday, foreign investors posted net purchases of 76.6 billion won.

During the first half of the year, when markets were in a bull run, the top ETF by net foreign purchases was TIGER MSCI Korea TR — which invests in large- and mid-cap blue-chip domestic stocks — with 1.74 trillion won in net inflows.

KODEX SK hynix Single Stock Leverage followed at 607.2 billion won, with TIGER US NASDAQ 100 at 485.7 billion won.

From July through last month, when the Kospi was in a correction, foreign investors favored KODEX Leverage at 641.1 billion won, TIGER US NASDAQ 100 at 634.9 billion won and KODEX 200 at 584.3 billion won.

This month, from Oct. 1 through Monday, foreign investors have been buying products with opposing strategies simultaneously — including KODEX Leverage at 68.7 billion won and KODEX 200 Futures Inverse 2X at 33.3 billion won.

Among sector-specific ETFs, TIGER Semiconductor TOP10 Leverage was the most net-purchased, at 15.6 billion won.

"Foreign capital inflows have not returned since the start of the year," said Lee Sang-hyun, a researcher at Meritz Securities. "However, capital has been flowing in through ETFs into themes where share prices have been weak, such as semiconductors, financials and nuclear energy."