South Korea’s retail investors are flocking to US equities, betting a stock market rally will continue in the second Donald Trump presidency and frustrated by years of poor share performance at home.
Holdings of US stocks by the country’s investors reached a record $112.1bn at the end of 2024, according to Korea Securities Depository data, up 65 per cent from a year earlier.
That contrasts sharply with their net selling of Won5.4tn ($3.6bn) worth of local shares listed on the Kospi benchmark last year, dragging the index down nearly 10 per cent. This came despite the government’s efforts to boost historically low valuations through a “Corporate Value-up” initiative.