SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won has drawn attention after SK Hynix shares hit the upper price limit a day after he purchased them on the open market for the first time since taking office.

SK Hynix filed a report on the ownership status of specific securities by executives and major shareholders today (July 31) to disclose Chairman Chey's securities ownership status.

According to the filing, Chairman Chey purchased SK Hynix shares at 1,353,677 won per share yesterday.

The total purchase amount reaches 4.9 billion won.

SK Group explained that this was the maximum amount invested to demonstrate his commitment to responsible management as quickly as possible under the current system, but the market has been focusing on the purchase amount of "4.9 billion won."

Analysts in the securities industry suggest that Chairman Chey chose 4.9 billion won to prevent stock price distortion.

The current "insider trading pre-disclosure system" stipulates that if an executive or major shareholder of a listed company intends to trade shares where the sum of shares traded during the past six months based on the trading start date and the future trading period accounts for 1% or more of the total issued shares or a trading value of 5 billion won or more, they must disclose their trading plan 30 days prior to the trading start date.

Conversely, if the trading volume is less than 1% of the total issued shares and the trading value is less than 5 billion won, the pre-disclosure obligation is exempted.

This is a measure to prevent so-called "split trading," where transactions are divided multiple times to avoid disclosure obligations.

Therefore, securities industry analysts interpret that Chairman Chey made the purchase right at the threshold below the disclosure obligation to prevent the fact from being known in advance and causing significant stock price volatility, which would happen if he purchased 5 billion won or more.

This is the first time Chairman Chey has directly purchased SK Hynix shares.

It is known that he decided to make the purchase after judging that SK Hynix's stock price has recently been excessively undervalued.

An industry insider said, "It seems to reflect his determination to deliver a message to the market by swiftly proceeding with the purchase without separate procedures."

Meanwhile, SK Hynix shares surged 29.95% from the previous day to record 1,718,000 won per share as of 2:15 PM today.

Reported by Kim Jiuk | Video by Kim Na-on | Graphics by Yook Do-hyun | Produced by SBS Digital News