Anna Jiwon Park has been covering the politics at The Korea Times since the summer of 2024, when she joined the press pool for the Office of the President in Korea. Prior to that, she spent about five years reporting extensively on financial markets, regulatory authorities and the financial industry. She joined The Korea Times in 2019 after spending eight years as a broadcast journalist at Arirang TV, Korea’s leading global broadcaster, covering politics, defense and culture.
Koreans' overseas stock investments reach all-time high
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By Anna J. Park
Tesla, Palantir, Unity Software are top 3 most net-purchased stocks in February
By Anna J. Park
Koreans investing overseas set another monthly record in February, according to data compiled by the Korea Securities Depository, which showed that stock transactions by local investors reached $49.7 billion.
This was a 35.1 percent hike from the previous month, and also the highest monthly total recorded in the 10 years since the KSD began compiling data. The previous monthly high was set in January, following an upward trend in Koreans investing overseas that began last October.
When it comes to the number of net-purchases, however, February saw a 38 percent decrease month-on-month, meaning the record had more to do with increased net-selling amid last month's global market corrections.
By item, shares in Tesla were still Koreans' top pick for purchasing at $382 million over the month. Big-data tech company Palantir Technologies and 3D tech firm Unity Software followed Tesla in the top three most net-purchased overseas stocks ― Apple was fourth.
February's data also showed that Korean investors seem to be more interested in short-term gains. In terms of the entire trading volume ― purchasing and selling ― GameStop took second place with $3.02 billion, following only electric vehicle maker Tesla. The video game company stock showed an extreme level of trading volatility in late January and February, as retail investors battled institutional short sellers to cause them heavy losses.