Even as the domestic stock market recently undergoes a correction, retail investors' net purchases of domestic stocks have surpassed 201 trillion won this year.

According to the Korea Exchange and financial information provider Yonhap Infomax on the 9th, the total net purchase amount by retail investors from January 1 to July 31 was tallied at 201.8503 trillion won.

This figure represents purchases of domestic stocks (stocks combined hereinafter) and ETFs (Exchange Traded Funds) in the Kospi and Kosdaq markets through the Korea Exchange and the alternative trading system Nextrade.

In less than three months since surpassing 100 trillion won on May 15 (107.0003 trillion won), the net purchase scale has doubled.

During this period, retail investors net purchased 104.5453 trillion won worth of shares in the Kospi market while net selling 10.3365 trillion won worth in the Kosdaq market.

They bought 36.9451 trillion won worth through Nextrade and recorded 70.6964 trillion won in net purchases in the ETF market as well.

Since May 15, they net purchased 57.7520 trillion won in the Kospi market and net sold 3.0783 trillion won in the Kosdaq market.

They net purchased 12.3355 trillion won through Nextrade and 27.8407 trillion won in the ETF market, respectively.

The retail net purchase amount up to July 31 is more than 15 times the 13.1631 trillion won net purchased during the same period last year (979.9 billion won net sold in stocks, 14.1430 trillion won net purchased in ETFs).

As of the 7th, retail net purchases have further swelled to 214.1490 trillion won, combining 141.8288 trillion won in combined stocks and 72.3202 trillion won in ETFs.

In particular, although the Kospi underwent a correction by dropping to the 6,200 range on the 7th following its closing high on June 22 (9,114.55), retail investors net purchased over 55 trillion won during this period, including 38.9558 trillion won in combined stocks and 16.4608 trillion won in ETFs.

While individuals continue net purchasing during the correction market to absorb massive selling by foreigners, it remains uncertain how long they can prop up the index.

Citi Global Markets Securities estimated in a report on July 29 that retail investors suffered losses of 38.7 billion dollars (54.8611 trillion won) from their peak through single-stock leverage investments.

In addition, domestic investors expanded their investments in the U.S. stock market over the past two months, but are expected to have incurred losses close to 50 trillion won.

Investor deposits, considered retail investors' financial "ammunition," approached the 140 trillion won range on June 4 before dropping to 104 trillion won on the 4th, while the credit financing balance—an indicator of debt-financed investing ("debt-to-invest")—surged close to the 40 trillion won mark (38.6328 trillion won on June 24) before falling below 30 trillion won.

Experts, however, view that a sharp decrease in investor deposits does not necessarily mean a decline in retail buying momentum.

Shin Seung-jin, head of the investment information team at Samsung Securities, said, "Investor deposits are a type of waiting fund deposited with securities firms to buy stocks. They tend to have a lagging nature, increasing with expectations when the market rises and decreasing with disappointment when it drops."

Na Jung-hwan, an analyst at NH Investment & Securities, also noted, "Deposits decreased during the market correction in March as well, but then broke record highs once the Kospi rebounded. Judging investment decisions based on deposit balances is like trying to predict future stock price directions by looking in the rearview mirror."