Retail investors see disappointing performance in January

Amateur share traders, who defended the market from a massive selloff by established investors, injected nearly half of last year’s investments in January, but their performance remained in negative territory, data showed Monday.

According to the Korea Exchange, individual investors net purchased Kospi-listed stocks worth 22.34 trillion won ($19.97 billion) and 3.51 trillion-won worth of shares from the secondary Kosdaq market. The net buying figures, when combined, are equivalent to 40 percent of the 63.80 trillion won worth of stocks they bought throughout last year, indicating individual traders becoming a powerful market force.

An electronic signboard in the dealing room of Hana Bank in Seoul shows the benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) having plunged 92.84 points, or 13.03 percent, to close at 2,976.21 on Jan. 29, 2021, on massive foreign dumping, largely generated by valuation concerns over local stocks and a liquidity squeeze in China. (Yonhap)

Despite their audacious investment, ant investors, as they are known colloquially, logged a negative performance in January in all the top 10 shares they remain net-buyers of as of Jan. 29, the last trading day of the month.

The list includes Samsung Electronics, preferred shares in Samsung Electronics, Hyundai Mobis, Hyundai Motor, SK hynix, Kia, LG Electronics, SK Innovation, Celltrion and SK Biopharm -- in the order of the size of net purchase by retail investors. The list also shows that individual investors continued to favor blue-chip stocks in which they saw a double-digit profit last year.

For Samsung Electronics, retail investors swallowed a net of 10.15 trillion-won worth of shares in the first month, already exceeding last year’s record purchase of stocks worth 9.59 trillion won.

A Samsung Electronics share was traded at an average price of 87,001 won last month, but closed at 5.7 percent lower or 82,000 won, on the last trading day of January.

(gypark@heraldcorp.com)