SK Hynix rebounds as foreign investors return to South Korean chip stocks

Foreign investors turned net buyers of South Korean equities over the past two trading days, purchasing 3.19 trillion won of Kospi shares and more than 2 trillion won on July 15 alone, with SK Hynix, SK Square and Samsung Electronics drawing the largest inflows. SK Hynix attracted 1.9322 trillion won over the two-day period, while Samsung Electronics drew 219.3 billion won, as offshore funds returned after a sharp selloff that had pushed the chipmakers deep into oversold territory despite little change in fundamentals. Both stocks rebounded on July 15, with SK Hynix rising 8.83% and Samsung Electronics gaining 6.27%. Analysts said the buying reflected bargain hunting after portfolio rebalancing and a period of heavy foreign selling from June 19 through July 7, interrupted only by modest net purchases on July 8 and July 9. They said the recent volatility was driven more by macroeconomic uncertainty, questions about the durability of AI infrastructure spending and supply-demand distortions linked to single-stock leveraged products than by deterioration in memory-industry conditions. Structural supply constraints tied to high-bandwidth memory expansion and long-term supply agreements were seen supporting profitability for longer. SK Hynix’s newly listed Nasdaq ADR remained a focus because its overnight surge pushed the premium to the Seoul-listed shares above 50%, with one calculation putting it at 51% based on the ADR price and the previous day’s local close. Some analysts said a wide ADR premium could encourage foreign investors to buy the cheaper Seoul-listed shares, citing Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. as a precedent when local shares become relatively more attractive than U.S.-traded receipts.