As South Korea's leading semiconductor stocks plummeted 30% to 40% in just a month, foreign investors have stepped in for bargain hunting, purchasing over 4 trillion won worth of shares.

Even global investment bank Morgan Stanley, which advised reducing semiconductor weight just two weeks ago, changed its stance, calling it a "buying opportunity."

Foreigners net purchased 4,577.1 billion won worth of shares in the KOSPI market over the past three trading sessions.

Buying pressure was heavily concentrated on Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, with 1,563.8 billion won and 1,481.9 billion won bought, respectively.

Particularly, foreigners purchased 2,621.1 billion won in the domestic stock market yesterday alone, marking the largest scale in about two months.

On the same day, retail and institutional investors net sold 1,217.7 billion won and 1,396.1 billion won, respectively.

Buoyed by foreign buying on this day, the KOSPI recovered the 7,000 mark during the intraday session, but as profit-taking orders poured in during the afternoon, it gave up most of its gains and closed up 0.74% from the previous trading day at 6,797.70.

SK Hynix's stock price also surged over 9% to recover the 2 million won threshold, but as it fell steeply in the afternoon, it finished trading down 0.33% at 1.83 million won.

After hitting a peak based on the closing price on June 22, SK Hynix has fallen 39.57% and Samsung Electronics has dropped 31.94% over the same period.

The market is focusing its attention on whether the flow of foreign capital has shifted structurally.

In its report on the 5th, Morgan Stanley previously recommended reducing semiconductor weight in the short term while expanding weight in hyperscalers and big tech, stating that the narrow semiconductor-focused rally was coming to an end and leadership was broadening.

However, Morgan Stanley analyst Joseph Moore stated on the 20th that given the ongoing memory cycle is driven by AI data center demand, making it an unusual trend differing from the past, "We view the recent stock price weakness as a great buying opportunity."

Reported by Kim Minjeong | Video by Lee Eui-seon | Graphics by Lee Su-min | Produced by SBS Digital News