South Korean individual investors channelled a net $7.04 billion into US equities between 1 July and 28 August 2025, as a sharp correction in the domestic KOSPI index drove retail money across the Pacific, according to data from the Korea Securities Depository's online portal released on 30 August. The two-month figure represented roughly 70 percent of their entire first-half net purchases in the US market, which stood at $9.87 billion.

The KOSPI Correction That Triggered the Shift

The exodus from domestic stocks followed a steep fall in the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) after it hit a record closing high of 9,114.55 points on 22 June. The index slid to the 7,000-point level by the second trading session of July and has since remained in the 6,000-point range for more than a month. Notably, this kind of domestic-to-foreign rotation is not unprecedented in South Korea — retail investors have historically pivoted to US markets during periods of local volatility, but the speed and scale of this shift stand out.

Where Korean Investors Put Their Money

The top pick by a wide margin was Direxion Daily Semiconductor Bull 3X Shares (SOXL), a leveraged ETF that targets three times the daily return of the ICE Semiconductor Index, attracting net purchases of $3 billion. Beyond SOXL, investors also bought a net $815.42 million in SK hynix American depositary receipts (ADRs), $647.17 million in Alphabet shares, and $514.96 million in SpaceX.

What They Sold

In a notable reversal, Korean retail investors were net sellers of several high-profile US technology names during the same period. They offloaded a net $748.9 million worth of Nvidia shares, $615.4 million of Palantir Technologies, and $353.93 million of Micron Technology. The sell-off in Nvidia is particularly striking given the stock's earlier status as a retail favourite in South Korea.

US Markets Stayed Resilient

The appeal of US equities was reinforced by relative strength on Wall Street. The S&P 500 climbed from 7,499.36 at end-June to 7,730.99 by 28 August, while the Nasdaq Composite advanced from 26,213.72 to 26,541.35 over the same stretch. Meanwhile, Korean investors also bought a net 8.75 trillion won ($6.34 billion) in the KOSPI market and a net 1.57 trillion won in the secondary KOSDAQ market — suggesting some were bargain-hunting at home even as the bulk of fresh capital headed abroad.

Analyst View

'Increasing volatility in the KOSPI and losses in semiconductor shares encourage investment in the U.S.,' said Shin Seung-jin, a researcher at Samsung Securities. The monthly breakdown underscores the pace of the shift: Korean retail investors bought a net $4.64 billion in US stocks in July alone, followed by $2.4 billion in the first 27 days of August. With the KOSPI yet to recover meaningfully, analysts expect the outflow trend to persist into September unless domestic semiconductor stocks stabilise.