As the local market slumps, individual investors return to U.S. stocks, buying a net 10 trillion won over two months

[Financial News] Over the past two months, domestic individual investors have bought a net 10 trillion won worth of U.S. stocks, according to market data. As the local stock market has remained weak, they appear to be increasing their exposure to U.S. equities.
According to SEIBro, the securities information portal run by KSD, on the 30th, individual investors bought a net $7.03878 billion, or about 9.717 trillion won, worth of U.S. stocks from July through the 28th of this month.
That is more than 960 billion won higher than the 8.7532 trillion won they bought on net in the domestic main board market over the same period. Their net buying in KOSDAQ amounted to 1.5717 trillion won.
Individual investors have been rapidly increasing their purchases of U.S. stocks again since July, when the domestic market correction began. They bought a net $4.64241 billion in U.S. stocks in July, then added another $2.39638 billion through the 28th of this month. The two-month total came to $7.03879 billion, equal to 71.3% of the $9.86785 billion in net buying recorded in the first half of the year.
The surge in buying of U.S. stocks coincides with the period when KOSPI entered a full-fledged correction. KOSPI hit an all-time high of 9,114.55 on a closing basis on June 22, then turned downward. It held above the 8,000 level through June, but fell into the 7,000 range on July 2 and slipped to the 6,000 level by mid-July.
Earlier, individual investors had returned to the domestic market, selling a net $468.92 million and $939.76 million in U.S. stocks in April and May, respectively, helped by tax relief on capital gains and other factors. But they switched back to net buying in June with $632.96 million, and from July onward they sharply increased their purchases again.
While the domestic market corrected over the past two months, major U.S. indexes continued to rise. The S&P 500 Index climbed 3.09% from 7,499.36 at the end of June to 7,730.99 on the 27th. Over the same period, the NASDAQ Composite, which is centered on technology stocks, rose 1.25% from 26,213.72 to 26,541.35.
Buying by individual investors was concentrated in high-risk products that bet on gains in U.S. semiconductor stocks. From July through the 28th of this month, the most net-bought security was the Exchange-Traded Fund (ETF) Direxion Daily Semiconductor Bull 3X Shares (SOXL), which tracks three times the daily return of the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOX). Net purchases of the fund reached $3.00632 billion, accounting for 42.7% of total net buying of U.S. stocks during the period.
They also bought $815.42 million worth of SK hynix American Depositary Receipts (ADR) on a net basis. That was followed by Alphabet Inc. at $647.17 million and SpaceX at $514.96 million.
By contrast, they took profits in large U.S. technology stocks they had already held. Over the same period, they sold a net $748.90 million worth of NVIDIA Corporation. They also sold Palantir Technologies, Micron Technology, Inc. and Microsoft, with net sales of $615.40 million, $353.93 million and $322.30 million, respectively.
Cash waiting on the sidelines in the domestic market also fell sharply. Investor deposits, which stood at 132.4696 trillion won on June 29, dropped by 33.552 trillion won over two months to 98.9176 trillion won on the 26th of this month. As the domestic correction dragged on, part of that idle cash appears to have moved into the relatively stronger U.S. market.
[email protected] Bae Han-geul Reporter