Retail Investors Pour 1.2 Trillion Won into SpaceX on Debut, Shifting Away from Tesla

Individual investors in South Korea have purchased over 1 trillion won worth of shares in space exploration company SpaceX on its first day of trading on the U.S. stock market.

It is highly unusual for "Seohak Ants"—a term for South Korean retail investors who invest in U.S. stocks—to engage in such a massive "buying spree" of over 1 trillion won for a single stock in a single day.

According to the financial investment industry, individual investors net purchased $885 million worth of SpaceX shares through 11 brokerage firms on the 12th (local time), which amounts to 1.2346 trillion won based on the exchange rate at the time.

This volume is more than 30 times the amount of the QQQ ETF, which was the second most net-purchased stock on the same day.

Even when looking at the past month, a single-day purchase of 1.2 trillion won for one stock is an unprecedented scale.

Earlier this month, before the SpaceX listing, the stock most heavily purchased by retail investors in a single day was the "SOXL" ETF, which tracks the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index at three times the daily performance.

On the 4th, retail investors bought approximately $514.22 million worth of that stock, meaning the investment in SpaceX exceeded that figure by more than 1.5 times.

This large-scale buying is interpreted as a reflection of high interest in SpaceX and expectations that its stock price will continue to rise in the future.

SpaceX's initial public offering (IPO) price was $135. The stock began trading at $150 on its debut, soared to $176 during the session, and closed at $161.11, up 19.3%.

Based on the closing price, it is estimated that retail investors purchased approximately 5 million shares of SpaceX.

The stock surged another 19.6% to close on the 15th (local time), the second day of trading, leading to expectations that the total net purchase amount by retail investors over the two days will exceed 2 trillion won.

In just one day, SpaceX has secured a spot among the top 30 U.S. stocks most held by South Korean retail investors.

Reported by Kim Jiuk | Video by Lee Ui-seon | Graphics by Yang Hye-min | Produced by SBS Digital News
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.