Foreign investors who had cashed out of Korea Inc. worth 16 trillion won ($12 billion) in the first half have turned into bargain hunters, net buying 2.4 trillion won worth on the Kospi for eight consecutive sessions as of Monday.

Foreigners have kept up net buying of more than 130 billion won worth per session since July 28, or 2.4 trillion won in total on the Kospi. They bought 32.4 billion won worth on Tuesday.

Foreigners’ return to the Kospi market has helped the country’s benchmark stock index rebound towards 2,500. The Kospi added 0.42 percent to close at 2,503.46 on Tuesday, recovering from this year’s low of 2,292 set on July 6.

Large-cap stocks benefited mostly from bargain hunting by offshore investors.

Their top buy was LG Energy Solution, the largest electric vehicle battery producer in Korea, with net purchase of 458.0 billion won. They also bought 281 billion won worth of another EV battery major Samsung SDI shares, followed by chip heavyweight Samsung Electronics with 228.0 billion won.

Others in the 10 top picks were Hyundai Motor, LG Chem, Hanwha Solution Hyundai Mipo Dockyard, Kakao, Kia, and Hyundai Mobis. Meanwhile, foreign investors net sold S-Oil, OCI, POSCO Holdings and stocks that retail investors recently had heavily bought.

Offshore investors have turned eyes to emerging markets upon seeing eased inflation and resilient job data in the U.S.

“The stock market is expected remain somewhat stable in August unless there are surprise events. Sentiment however would be restrained until the next U.S Federal Reserve meeting in September,” said Lee Woong-chan, analyst at Hi Investment & Securities.

By Park Yoon-ye and Cho Jeehyun

[ⓒ Pulse by Maeil Business Newspaper & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]