Which firms are foreigners unhappy with?

Foreign equity investors ‘unhappy’ with LGE, Samsung Fire, Hyundai Construction

Foreign investors have made up for losses incurred in their stock investments during the 2008 financial crisis and posted an extra 35 trillion won in capital gains this year and last, the Korea Exchange said in its estimates Sunday.

The best performers were Kia Motors with their capital gains estimated at 161 percent; Lotte-affiliated Honam Petrochemical at 150 percent and Hyundai Heavy Industries at 114 percent.

Foreign-owned stock holdings were estimated at 361.4 trillion won as of last week, up 118 percent from 165.8 trillion won at the end of 2008.

The exchange pointed out that foreign holdings have gone up by an estimated 195.6 trillion won, compared with those at the end of 2008 but foreign investors have spent only 51.8 trillion won, meaning that they have acquired capital gains of 144 trillion won.

Foreign investors lost an estimated 108 trillion won during the financial crisis. Therefore, they have more than recovered from their losses by 36 trillion won.

This also shows that their investment strategy in Korea, one of the emerging countries that are pulling the global economy at a time when advanced nations are struggling, has paid off.

Their investments in Kia, Honam and Hyundai Heavy hit the jackpot with their evaluated stock value skyrocketing.

In contrast, Samsung Electronics, the most popular “buy” stock, has done rather poorly with capital gains up 14.8 percent. However, No. 2 Hyundai Motor was up 52.5 percent, Hyundai Mobis 83.6 percent and LG Chem. 68.5 percent. All have outperformed the average increase of 18.2 percent among KOSPI stocks.

LG Electronics, Samsung Fire and Marine Insurance and Hyundai Construction and Engineering, were all included in the top 20 stocks that are most popular among foreign investors but have underperformed, not meeting the average increase.