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Photo courtesy of Yonhap News |
[Alpha Biz= Paul Lee] South Korean retail investors, often referred to as “Seohak Ants,” sold more than 1 trillion won (over $1 billion) worth of U.S. equities in the first week of June, extending their selling streak to a third consecutive month.
According to the Korea Securities Depository’s securities information portal SEIBro on June 7, Korean investors recorded net sales of $793.67 million (approximately 1.24 trillion won) in U.S. stocks between June 1 and 5. They purchased $882 million worth of shares while selling $802.63 million during the same period.
The net selling trend has continued for three straight months, following net sales of $939.77 million in May and $468.92 million in April. This marks the first three-month consecutive net selling streak since April to July 2023.
On a weekly basis, the selling pressure has also intensified, marking the strongest outflow since April.
Market analysts attribute the trend to the relatively weaker performance of U.S. equities compared to South Korean stocks. While domestic semiconductor stocks such as Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix delivered returns of 198% and 258%, respectively, major U.S. stocks such as NVIDIA (20%) and Tesla (-8%) lagged behind.
The June sell-off also differs somewhat from April and May, as a tax incentive allowing a 100% deduction on capital gains taxes for overseas stock sales via returning investment accounts expired last month. The deduction rate is set to decline to 80% through the end of July.
Despite the continued selling, the total value of U.S. stocks held by Korean investors remained above $200 billion, reaching $201 billion.
In terms of stock preferences, Micron Technology was the most heavily purchased stock, with net buying of $205.63 million, following $585.43 million in net purchases in May. Other top buys included Broadcom ($175.58 million) and Arm Holdings ($163.70 million).
Meanwhile, Intel and Alphabet, which ranked among the top net purchases in May, fell out of the top 20 list in June.
Alphabiz Reporter Paul Lee(hoondork1977@alphabiz.co.kr)
