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The Kospi edged up Thursday after flipping between gains and losses more than 50 times throughout the session, as the market's top-performing investors snapped up Samsung Electronics shares at a discount while taking profits on SK Hynix, which they had bought at a low the previous day. Buying also flowed into Mirae Asset Securities as anticipation built over an imminent SpaceX listing, with some investors treating the brokerage as an indirect play on the offering.
The Kospi closed at 7,763.95, up 33.13 points, or 0.43 percent, from Wednesday, after oscillating between positive and negative territory throughout the day.
According to Mirae Asset Securities, its highest-earning customers — defined as the top 1 percent of retail stock traders on the platform by one-month return — were net buyers of Samsung Electronics, Mirae Asset Securities and SK Networks, in that order, as of 11 a.m. Thursday.
The elite investors concentrated their buying in Samsung Electronics, which analysts say still has ample room to climb further.
Samsung Electronics, the top net-buy pick, closed at 299,000 won (about $196), down 1.16 percent from the previous session.
Samsung Electronics posted record consolidated sales of 133.8734 trillion won and operating profit of 57.2328 trillion won in the first quarter. Compared with the same period last year, sales surged 69.2 percent and operating profit jumped 756.1 percent.
In response, brokerages raised their target price for Samsung Electronics to 530,000 won.
In a report Wednesday, KB Securities forecast Samsung Electronics' second-quarter operating profit would surge roughly 19 times from a year earlier to 90 trillion won, with an operating margin of 51 percent, and set a target price of 530,000 won.
NH Investment also raised its target price for Samsung Electronics to 530,000 won from 490,000 won on Wednesday.
"Samsung Electronics' operating profit is projected at 365 trillion won this year and 506 trillion won next year," said Ryu Young-ho, an analyst at NH Investment. "The company has entered an agentic AI diffusion cycle."
Mirae Asset Securities ranked second in net purchases. Its shares fell as much as 6 percent early in the session before closing down 0.20 percent at 51,100 won. Investor interest has been drawn to the stock as a beneficiary of growing excitement over a potential SpaceX listing.
SpaceX is set to finalize its IPO price Thursday and begin trading Friday. The market values SpaceX at roughly $1.8 trillion (about 2,729 trillion won) after its listing.
Some analysts say domestic investors are eyeing Mirae Asset Securities as an indirect vehicle for SpaceX exposure ahead of the listing.
Mirae Asset Securities posted operating profit of 1.0019 trillion won in the first quarter, a 288 percent jump from a year earlier, driven in part by its SpaceX investment. The brokerage also recorded net profit of more than 800 billion won, reflecting large unrealized gains on past overseas investments, and is widely regarded as having solid earnings fundamentals.
Analysts said investors seized on the dip as a buying opportunity after broader market volatility weighed on securities stocks.
SK Networks ranked third in net purchases but closed down 9.88 percent at 11,670 won.
SK Networks reported first-quarter sales of 1.7434 trillion won, operating profit of 33.4 billion won and net profit for the period of 42.7 billion won, with analysts crediting returns from AI-related investments for driving the earnings rebound.
On the selling side, SK Hynix, LG Innotek and Hanmi Semiconductor topped the net-sell list Thursday.
SK Hynix investors appear to have bought shares at a discount during Wednesday's sharp market decline and moved to lock in gains Thursday.
yeonjoo7@heraldcorp.com
