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Korean retail investors, often called Seohak ants, who began selling off 3x Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) in the U.S. stock market earlier this month, have resumed purchasing them.
This is interpreted as global semiconductor stocks gaining strength as concerns over the semiconductor industry peaking out have subsided.
According to SEIBRO, the securities information portal of the Korea Securities Depository, retail investors net purchased $662.85 million (936.6 billion won) worth of "SOXL" (Direxion Daily Semiconductor Bull 3X Shs ETF) on August 12 and 13 (based on settlement dates).
Following a net purchase of $544.46 million on August 12, they additionally bought $118.39 million worth on August 13.
This marks a complete turnaround from their previous stance of net selling $1.63893 billion up until August 11, which included a massive single-day sell-off of $664.39 million on August 3, the first trading day of the month.
This shift is driven by the upward momentum of the U.S. Philadelphia Semiconductor Index, which rebounded from 10,447.49 on July 29 amid semiconductor peak theories to rise to 12,456.00 by August 13.
SOXL is an ETF that tracks three times the daily return of the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index.
The two-day net purchase volume of SOXL is 13 times that of Alphabet ($62.09 million), which ranked second in net purchases during the same period.
Retail investors had continued net purchasing SOXL until March.
Although they sold off in April and May, they returned to net buying starting in June.
Consequently, following $40.87 million in June, they engaged in a buying spree of $3.78586 billion in July.
Entering August, they started with net selling but are now back to accumulating shares.
With the net purchases over the two days, the net selling figure for August 1 to 13 decreased to $976.08 million.
The total evaluated value of SOXL held by retail investors reached $6.55903 billion as of August 12.
This ranks fourth among U.S. stocks held by Korean retail investors, following Tesla ($19.15557 billion), NVIDIA ($18.29608 billion), and Alphabet ($8.42701 billion).
It has jumped significantly from 10th place at the end of April.
The valuation was also boosted by the SOXL share price surging more than 25% from $114.72 at the end of last month to $145.36 on August 13.
From the beginning of this month through August 13, retail investors have net purchased $1.1567 billion (1.6344 trillion won) in U.S. stocks.
This marks the third consecutive month of net buying since turning to net buyers in the U.S. market last June ($632.96 million).
However, this falls short of July's net purchase volume of $4.66862 billion.
The top net-bought U.S. stocks for retail investors in August are Amazon ($193.6 million), SpaceX ($175.91 million), and Alphabet ($136.3 million).
Meanwhile, investor deposits, which represent waiting funds in the stock market and had fallen below 100 trillion won, have recovered the 100 trillion won mark.
According to the Korea Financial Investment Association, investor deposits stood at 100.0683 trillion won on August 13, up 91.9 billion won from the previous session.
Deposits recovered the 100 trillion won threshold in three trading days, a rebound attributed to the rising trend in the KOSPI, which recently recovered the 7,000 level during intraday trading.
The credit margin balance, an indicator of debt-financed investing, also rose for the seventh consecutive trading day to 30.9262 trillion won.
(Photo: AP, Yonhap News)
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