STOCKS | South Korean Stocks Fall as Retail Investors’ Five-Day U.S. Stock Buying Exceeds August Total

South Korean stocks fell as retail investors increased their U.S. stock purchases, with five trading days of net buying exceeding the total for August. According to Sina Finance, citing data released by the Korea Securities Depository’s SEIBro platform on the 7th, investors net bought $2.19753 billion in U.S. stocks from the 2nd through the 6th, equivalent to about 2.982 trillion won. That was more than August’s $1.96234 billion and over twice September’s $1.00128 billion, and equaled about 40% of the previous month’s $5.42312 billion total. During the same five sessions, investors net bought 4.2 trillion won in shares on the KOSPI main board, nearly matching their U.S. stock purchases. South Korean retail investors were net sellers of U.S. stocks in April and May, selling $468.93 million and $939.77 million, respectively. They turned to net buying in June and continued increasing purchases, with last month’s net buying reaching an 11-month high. The shift came as South Korean stocks retreated after failing to extend their gains from the first half of the year and the won strengthened from the 1,500-per-dollar range to the mid-1,300s, lowering the cost of converting won into dollars. Purchases were concentrated in Direxion Daily Semiconductor Bull 3X Shares (SOXL), which seeks three times the daily return of a semiconductor index. Investors net bought $1.62525 billion of SOXL from the 2nd through the 6th, more than 70% of total net U.S. stock purchases. They also net bought $497.05 million of Alphabet shares and $220.22 million of ProShares UltraPro QQQ (TQQQ), which seeks three times the daily return of the Nasdaq-100 Index. According to the Korea Financial Investment Association, brokerage investor deposit balances stood at 88.5338 trillion won as of the 5th, remaining below 100 trillion won for nearly a month since the 13th of last month. Margin debt was around 28 trillion won, at 28.7715 trillion won.