▲ Semiconductor stock, SK Hynix
On July 10, when SK Hynix entered the Nasdaq through an American Depositary Receipt (ADR) listing, South Korean retail investors, often referred to as "Seohak Ants," net purchased over 300 billion won worth of SK Hynix ADRs.
According to the financial investment industry on July 15, a total of approximately 84,000 retail investors purchased SK Hynix ADRs through nine major domestic securities firms, including Mirae Asset Securities, on July 10.
An ADR is a certificate issued to allow foreign companies to trade their shares on the U.S. stock market while maintaining their primary listing in their home country.
The total number of SK Hynix shares purchased by these retail investors reached 1.36 million.
This accounts for 0.76% of the total public offering volume of 177.9 million shares.
The total valuation of these holdings was calculated at 338.9 billion won.
When including investors who used other securities firms, it is estimated that the number of retail investors who purchased SK Hynix shares approaches 100,000, with total holdings estimated to be in the 400 billion won range.
On July 10 (Korea Standard Time), individual investors also net purchased 788,510 shares of SK Hynix on the domestic KOSPI market, amounting to 1.7 trillion won.
This indicates that investors were buying shares across both the U.S. and domestic markets, driven by expectations that SK Hynix's stock price would rise further following the ADR listing.
On July 13, despite SK Hynix's stock price on the domestic market plunging 16.15% from the previous trading day to fall below 2 million won, individual investors net purchased 3 trillion won worth of shares.
On its first day of listing, SK Hynix closed at 168.49 dollars, up approximately 13.1% from its ADR offering price of 149 dollars.
However, it is estimated that retail investors did not generate profits from their SK Hynix ADR investments on the first day of listing.
After starting trading at 170 dollars, which was higher than the offering price, SK Hynix shares climbed to as high as 177 dollars before giving up some of those gains and closing below the initial opening price.
SK Hynix's ADR listing, valued at a total of 26.5 billion dollars (approximately 40 trillion won), is the second-largest in the U.S. market, following SpaceX (85.7 billion dollars), which set an all-time record with its initial public offering (IPO) last month.
However, on July 13, the second trading day, SK Hynix ADRs closed down 9.32% from the previous trading day.