Since the emergency martial law was declared on the 3rd, the political turmoil over impeachment has continued, resulting in foreign capital exiting the domestic stock market. However, it appears that they have significantly bought shares of some corporations such as Naver, SK Hynix, Hanwha Aerospace, and Doosan Enerbility.
According to the Korea Exchange, foreign investors net sold about 12 trillion won in the securities market from April 4 to 10 immediately after the martial law was declared. As a result, the KOSPI index and KRX300 index also showed weakness, falling by approximately 3.29% and 3.21%, respectively. However, foreign investors did not completely turn their backs on the domestic stock market. During the same period, they picked up ‘valuable’ corporations.
The corporation that foreign investors net bought the most was Naver. Over five days, they purchased shares worth 138 billion won. Consequently, Naver's foreign ownership ratio increased from 46.43% on the 4th to 46.80% on the 10th. The stock price, which had plummeted by more than 3% immediately after the martial law, also showed signs of recovery. Naver, which closed at 202,500 won on the 4th, rose to 209,000 won on the 10th, increasing by 7,500 won (3.72%) from the previous day, and recouped its losses.
Next, another heavily purchased corporation was SK Hynix. During this period, foreign investors net bought SK Hynix shares worth 128 billion won, and the stock price fluctuated before ultimately rising by 1.4%.
Hanwha Aerospace, a leading defense corporation, saw its stock price more than double since the beginning of the year and net bought about 100 billion won by foreign investors after the incident. Despite individual investors flooding the market with over 90 billion won in sell orders due to the uncertain situation, foreign investors absorbed these orders, minimizing the decline in stock prices. Doosan Enerbility also had foreign investors net buy approximately 100 billion won worth of shares, digesting around 105 billion won of the stock dumped by institutions.
The reason foreign investors continue to invest in certain corporations while leaving the domestic stock market is that the valuation attractiveness remains. This suggests that the stock market crash due to martial law may have been utilized as a buying opportunity. Both Naver and SK Hynix achieved record-high earnings in the third quarter of this year.
Labor Road Research Institute official said, “Foreign investment trends after the emergency martial law are not as significantly negative as expected,” noting that “foreign investors capitalized on the opportunity to buy semiconductor and defense-related stocks after the price drops.”
This is not the first time foreign investors have marched toward buying valuable corporations amid political uncertainty. According to Imagined Securities, during the impeachment period of former President Park Geun-hye (from Oct. 19, 2016, to Dec. 14, 2016), the KOSPI index fell by 2.5%, but Samsung Electronics' stock price rose by about 10%. During that time, foreign investors net bought Samsung Electronics shares worth 200 billion won.
There are also predictions that the net purchases by foreign investors in certain corporations will continue for the time being. Oh Dong-hwan, a researcher at Samsung Securities, stated, “In the case of Naver, external policy variables are present, but through application reorganization and strengthening commerce, revenue and operating profit growth rates are increasing,” adding, “As the valuations have been undervalued over the past four to five years, foreign buying pressure is likely to continue.”