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Foreign investors are pulling money out of South Korea at a pace that would make even seasoned market watchers wince. Net sales of approximately $13.2 billion in Korean equities during a single week in mid-May triggered a 4% drop in the KOSPI, and the bleeding hasn’t stopped.
The selling streak has now stretched across 12 sessions through late May, with total foreign outflows reaching roughly 46.58 trillion won, or about $30.7 billion.
Semiconductors at the center of the storm
The exits aren’t spread evenly across the market. They’re concentrated in South Korea’s crown jewels: Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix.
Foreign net sales in those two semiconductor giants alone exceeded 10 trillion won, roughly $6.6 billion, in a separate week during May. Profit-taking from earlier AI rallies has been cited as a key driver.
Black Friday in Seoul
June 5 delivered the most dramatic single-session blow. The KOSPI plummeted more than 5% on what traders quickly dubbed “Black Friday,” settling around 8,160 points.
The decline was fueled by accelerated foreign withdrawals and a Korean won that fell to a 17-year low against the dollar.
By early June, cumulative foreign net selling on the KOSPI had surpassed 103 trillion won for the year, exceeding levels seen during previous market crises in South Korea.
The broader weekly foreign net selling hit 14.45 trillion won starting May 7. Multiple factors have converged: rising US Treasury yields, positioning ahead of significant US listings, profit-taking from AI-driven rallies in the semiconductor sector, and geopolitical tensions.
The ants are buying, but is it enough?
In Korean market parlance, domestic retail investors are known as “ants.” Individual Korean investors have stepped in as counterbalancing buyers during the foreign exodus, providing some floor for prices that might otherwise have fallen further.
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