So-called "Seohak Ants" (Korean retail investors investing in overseas stocks) have been buying up individual tech stocks in droves this month.
According to the Korea Securities Depository, from the 3rd to the 6th, Seohak Ants net-purchased $151.49 million (approx. 215 billion won) worth of Amazon.
Micron and SanDisk followed closely behind at $151.02 million (214 billion won) and $147.62 million (209.2 billion won), respectively.
This contrasts with last month, when the Direxion Daily Semiconductors Bull 3X Shares ETF (SOXL), which tracks 3 times the daily return of the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index, and SK Hynix American Depositary Receipts (ADRs) took the top two spots.
Amazon, Micron, and SanDisk failed to even crack the top 50 in net purchase settlement amounts for the entire month of July, marking a complete shift in market trends.
On the other hand, SK Hynix ADRs fell to 5th place, while SOXL was pushed out of the top 50.
During the same period, retail investors net-sold $1.84254 billion (2.612 trillion won) worth of SOXL.
This return of retail investors to accumulation of large-cap tech stocks is analyzed to be driven by a sharp rebound in share prices after big tech cloud businesses all posted earnings that exceeded market expectations.
On the 31st of last month (local time), major semiconductor-related stocks such as Amazon (15.32%), Micron (18.36%), SanDisk (25.99%), AMD (13.00%), and Intel (11.30%) surged by double digits, while the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index jumped by 8.19%.
In contrast, SOXL, which had surpassed $200 early last month, saw its share price drop below $100 before recently showing a recovery trend, leading analysts to believe that retail investors rushed to take massive profits.
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