Korean retail investors trading U.S. stocks, who had been net sellers of U.S. shares for two straight months in April and May, turned to net buying this month. Buying focused on artificial intelligence (AI) chip-related stocks and leveraged products.
According to Korea Securities Depository (KSD)'s securities information portal, Seibro, on the 14th, domestic investors were net sellers of about 1.205 trillion won in U.S. stocks on the 1st–5th but became net buyers of about 1.22 trillion won on the 8th–12th. As a result, on a cumulative basis for the 1st–12th, the value of buy settlements slightly outpaced sell settlements, turning into net buying.
The most purchased product during this period was the leveraged ETF that tracks three times the daily move of the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index, "Direxion Daily Semiconductors Bull 3X (SOXL)." Nicknamed "Sokseul," its purchase amount reached about 2.67 trillion won.
The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index is composed of global semiconductor corporations listed on Nasdaq, including Nvidia, TSMC, Micron, Intel and AMD.
The leveraged ETF "Koru (KORU)," which tracks Korea's stock market threefold, ranked second, but its purchase amount (about 314 billion won) was more than eight times smaller than Sokseul's.
Sokseul, which was the No. 1 net buy among Korean retail investors trading U.S. stocks in March, had been a net sell through the first week of this month (1st–5th), but sentiment shifted in the second week.
It is believed to reflect the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index's roughly 8% surge on the 11th in just one day, the biggest one-day gain in the past year.
Micron, which had held the top spot in net buying last month and through the first week of this month, fell to ninth in the weekly ranking for the second week of this month as its net buying volume decreased.
As a result, in the cumulative net buying rankings for the 1st–12th of this month, Sokseul (about 2 trillion won) took first place. That is about five times the amount for No. 2 Micron (about 440 billion won). Broadcom (about 180 billion won) followed.