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Retail investors lose faith in Korean stocks, turn to US market

Korean retail investors have shifted from domestic equities to U.S. stocks in the second half as the two markets have taken divergent paths, market analysts said Monday. While the KOSPI has fallen nearly 30 percent from its peak and struggled to regain momentum, enthusiasm for artificial intelligence (AI) has pushed Wall Street to a series of record highs. According to data from the Korea…

Retail investors lose faith in Korean stocks, turn to US market

South Korea's stock market, once a shining example of the global AI trade, is now struggling to attract investors. The country's Kospi index, which had seen a 100% rally in the first half of the year, has since lost 22% and is now the worst-performing benchmark in the second half. The market's AI fortunes are heavily reliant on Samsung Electronics Co and SK Hynix Inc, two leading memory-chip giants, but this concentration is now seen as a liability as investors question the sustainability of the memory chip boom.

Combined buybacks by Samsung and SK Hynix have reached $41 billion, but this has also led to a sharp decline in market turnover, with foreign investors retreating at the fastest pace in Asia. The market now faces skepticism over the durability of the memory chip boom and reluctance from global funds to return.

Brief written by urgent.news from The Economic Times - Top News's own syndicated text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.

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