According to data from Korea Securities Information Portal, South Korean retail investors underwent a notable rotation in early September, shedding individual semiconductor stocks and loading up on a leveraged ETF tracking the sector.
Between September 1 and 4, net selling by South Korean individual investors totaled over $100 million for Micron, $68.61 million for SanDisk, $49.37 million for Marvell Technology, and $15.56 million for Nvidia. SK Hynix ADR, which listed on the New York Stock Exchange in July, saw net selling of $46.16 million during the period, after accumulating net purchases of $811 million through the end of August.
In contrast, the same cohort net bought $431 million of SOXL (Direxion Daily Semiconductor Bull 3X Shares), a fund designed to deliver three times the daily return of the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index. The move suggests a shift from picking individual chip names to betting on the broader sector through leveraged exposure, possibly to reduce single-stock risk while maintaining upside participation after the recent rally in semiconductor shares.