Image not related to article. [Getty Images Bank]
Image not related to article. [Getty Images Bank]

Korean retail investors snapped up more than 100 billion won ($71.8 million) worth of US-listed ETFs holding Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix over the course of a week.

According to SEIBRO, the securities information portal of the Korea Securities Depository, Korean retail investors — commonly known as "seohak gaemi," or overseas stock ants — net purchased $85.61 million worth of the Roundhill Memory ETF (ticker: DRAM) from Aug. 14 to Aug. 20.

That made it the second-largest net purchase among all overseas securities during the period, trailing only Alphabet at $89.12 million.

The Roundhill Memory ETF is a US-listed actively managed ETF that concentrates its holdings in memory chipmakers, including Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix, Micron and Seagate.

The buying surge reflects a recovery in semiconductor share prices, which had stalled on both domestic and overseas markets for some time.

Investors also net purchased $28.4 million (39.4 billion won) worth of the Roundhill T-Rex 2X Long DRAM Daily Target ETF, a leveraged product that seeks twice the daily return of the underlying ETF.

Over the past two weeks, SK Hynix rose 21.66 percent and Samsung Electronics gained 21.86 percent — more than double the Kospi's advance of 10.45 percent over the same period.

US chip stocks also posted strong gains. Micron and SanDisk rose 11.0 percent and 32.0 percent, respectively, over the same stretch.

Securities analysts expect memory chip demand to remain solid, driven primarily by AI data centers.

"Even if demand for smartphones and PCs weakens further, the explosive growth in AI data center demand means memory supply will fall far short of what the consumer electronics market needs for years to come," said Kim Dong-won, head of research at KB Securities. "This year's unmet memory demand will roll over into next year, and next year's into 2028 — a domino effect of deferred demand that we expect to continue."


moon@heraldcorp.com