Despite the recent bearish price movement, South Korean tech titan Samsung Electronics remained a favorite pick among retail stock investors in hopes of a price rebound of the market bellwether.

From January until Friday, retail investors purchased 20.9 trillion won ($17 billion) worth of Samsung Electronics common shares on the stock market, meaning nearly one in four retail stock investment went to the single company, the Korea Exchange data showed Sunday.

The volume of Samsung stock purchase was followed by those of battery maker LG Energy Solution, drugmaker Ildong Pharmaceutical, shipping company HMM and internet giant Kakao.

Day traders in Korea sold a combined 12.78 trillion won of Samsung Electronics shares during the same period. As a result, the institutional investors‘ money that traveled to Samsung Electronics during the period exceeded 8 trillion won, the highest among some 2,300 listed companies here.

Retail investors’ entire purchase of listed shares on the KRX came to 870.9 trillion won, while sales reached 851.9 trillion won.

The news comes in contrast with the fall of the Samsung Electronics share price. During the cited period, Samsung Electronics shares slipped 13.7 percent, while KRX‘s main board benchmark Kospi dropped 9.3 percent.

More than 55 trillion won of market cap evaporated in the past three months. Samsung Electronics’ market cap amounts to 404.8 trillion won as of Friday, taking up 16 percent of all listed firms‘ market cap combined on the KRX.

The downtrend continued even after Samsung Electronics’ consensus-beating quarterly earnings guidance announced Thursday. Samsung is estimated to see its first-quarter operating profits surge over 50 percent on-year and revenue rise by nearly 20 percent.

Since Thursday, however, Samsung Electronics share price went on to hit a one-year low for the two straight days until Friday.

While Samsung, which makes consumer electronics goods, smartphones and chips, is poised to enter a strong season of the year in the second quarter, uncertainties still abound, analysts said.

“Rising interest rates and the resulting liquidity squeeze keep the outlook for demand uncertain,” noted Nam Dae-jong, an analyst at eBest Investment & Securities.

(consnow@heraldcorp.com)