[Anchor]

Signs of investors pulling out are becoming clear amid the wildly fluctuating domestic stock market. Conversely, the scale of domestic investors pouring money into U.S. stocks has surged this month.

Reporter Lee Tae-gwon has the details.

[Reporter]

This month alone, market stabilization measures have been triggered almost every day on the KOSPI, including two circuit breakers and 12 sidecars.

Amid extreme volatility, the index has plummeted 26% from its peak recorded a month ago.

Investor deposits in the domestic market, which serve as waiting capital for stocks, also shrank by more than 30 trillion won, dropping to the 105 trillion won range. Meanwhile, fueled by the atmosphere of interest rate hikes, the time deposit balances of the five major commercial banks increased by 22.3 trillion won this month.

[Cheon Yeong-jae / Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province: (The domestic market) has too much volatility, making it unpredictable, and the extent to which news is reflected is so overwhelming that it's too scary to continue.]

The scale of domestic investment in U.S. stocks is on the rise again.

While April and May saw a dominance of net selling, it shifted to net buying last month. This month, as the won-dollar exchange rate began to decline, the volume surged to four times that of last month.

So-called Seohak ants (individual Korean overseas investors) most heavily bought leveraged ETFs that track three times the daily return of the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index—comprising semiconductor-related companies such as Nvidia and Micron—followed by SK Hynix ADRs.

Experts analyze that as the domestic stock market recently plunged, investors chased higher returns by investing in U.S. tech stocks in anticipation of a rebound.

[Shin Seung-jin, Head of Investment Information Team at Samsung Securities: (In the first half of the year), the market was strong centering on memory semiconductors, which relatively reduced the incentive to invest in overseas stocks. Conversely, as domestic stocks have recently shown weakness, such disappointed capital seems to be moving overseas...]

The RIA (Return to Investment Account), which lowers capital gains tax rates for those who sell overseas stocks and invest in domestic ones, saw its growth momentum stall starting last month when the 100% tax exemption ended, and its balance has recently decreased.

Single-stock leveraged ETFs, introduced to prevent the outflow of domestic capital overseas, are instead creating the side effect of amplifying volatility.

Attention is focused on whether complementary measures for single-stock leveraged ETFs, set to take effect at the end of this month, can reduce volatility and lure investors back.

(Video Editing: Lee So-young, Design: Choi Jae-young)