"Only Retail Investors Didn't Know"... Foreigners Sell 20 Trillion Won in Samsung and SK Hynix, Then Suddenly

Foreign investors, who have been heavily selling shares of Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix—the two pillars of the domestic stock market—are showing completely different trading patterns in the leverage ETF market based on these same stocks.

They are employing a "two-track strategy": offloading the actual shares of Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix while repeatedly buying and selling single-stock leverage ETFs based on these companies to capitalize on every upward swing.

According to the Korea Exchange, from May 27 to June 12, foreign investors net sold approximately 12.6 trillion won worth of Samsung Electronics and 7.8 trillion won worth of SK Hynix.

They sold a staggering 20.48 trillion won worth of shares from these two companies alone.

Following this prolonged selling spree, foreign ownership in these stocks has fallen to its lowest level of the year.

The massive profit-taking was triggered by a sharp rise in stock prices driven by expectations for artificial intelligence demand.

However, a completely different trend emerged in the single-stock leverage ETF market during the same period.

Foreigners engaged in what is known as "ping-pong trading," where they would buy leverage ETFs, realize profits a few days later, and then buy them again.

In fact, foreign investors recorded net purchases in SK Hynix leverage ETFs on 7 out of the 12 total trading days.

A similar pattern of repeated buying and selling was observed with Samsung Electronics leverage ETFs.

While they reduced their holdings of the actual shares, they maintained their investment exposure to the semiconductor sector by aggressively betting on high-risk, high-return products during periods of price growth.

This, combined with changes in the investment methods of retail investors, has made the supply and demand structure for semiconductors even more complex.

An increasing number of individual investors are shifting away from buying actual shares as they did in the past, opting instead for leverage ETFs that aim for double the returns.

Consequently, as foreign cross-trading in ETFs intersects with the indirect investments of retail investors, experts point out that to accurately read the supply and demand flow of semiconductor "blue-chip" stocks, one must now examine not only the actual shares but also the trends in ETFs and derivatives.

Reported by JIN | Video by Hong Jin-young | Graphics by Yook Do-hyun | Produced by SBS Digital News
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.