Key facts
- Foreign investors offloaded a net 12.1 trillion won ($8.12 billion) in South Korean stocks this month.
- Foreign investors purchased a net 593.7 billion won worth of ETFs.
- KODEX Leverage and KODEX 200 were the most popular ETFs purchased by foreigners.
- Foreigners were net sellers of single-stock leveraged ETFs.
- South Korea raised the minimum deposit requirement for single-stock leveraged ETFs.
Foreign investors have been net sellers of South Korean stocks this month, offloading a significant amount on both the main and secondary markets. Through Thursday, July 18, 2026, net sales reached 12.1 trillion won on the main bourse and 338.1 billion won on the tech-heavy secondary market. This trend saw foreigners selling on eight out of twelve trading sessions.
Despite the stock sell-off, foreign investors demonstrated a continued appetite for exchange-traded funds (ETFs), with net purchases totaling 593.7 billion won this month. They were net buyers in 10 of the 12 trading sessions. The KODEX Leverage ETF, which aims to track twice the daily performance of the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), was the most popular, attracting 195 billion won in net purchases. Another KOSPI-tracking ETF, KODEX 200, followed with 180.6 billion won in net purchases.
Conversely, foreigners reduced their exposure to single-stock leveraged ETFs. They offloaded 79 billion won worth of the SK hynix leveraged ETF managed by Samsung Asset Management Co. and 46.4 billion won of a similar product from Mirae Asset Global Investments Co.
A market watcher suggested that foreign investors are using ETFs to diversify risk within their portfolios rather than making directional bets on the market. This comes as South Korea's financial authorities recently introduced measures to manage market volatility. These include raising the minimum deposit requirement for single-stock leveraged ETFs to 30 million won from 10 million won and allowing trading in lots of 20 shares.