韩媒复盘：高净值投资者10月减持三星电子、SK海力士等芯片龙头个股，转向KODEX半导体杠杆等ETF

Investors with more than 3 billion won ($2.1 million) in financial assets are shifting how they bet on semiconductors as South Korea's stock market turns more volatile. They are cutting direct holdings in large-cap chip stocks and concentrating instead on exchange-traded funds that track gains in the sector or the broader market.
The Seoul Economic Daily commissioned a major brokerage to analyze the five largest net purchases and net sales by about 7,900 high-net-worth investors between the 1st and the 20th of this month, and compared them with the same period last month. The results showed a clear shift in how these investors approach the chip sector.
Their largest net purchase this month was KODEX Semiconductor Leverage, with 33.2 billion won in net buying. The fund is a high-risk product that tracks twice the daily return of a semiconductor index. That marks a reversal from last month, when their net buying was concentrated in individual large-cap chip-related stocks such as Samsung Electronics preferred shares (59.6 billion won) and Samsung Electro-Mechanics (19.9 billion won).
Analysts read the shift as a move toward betting on a broad sector rally through ETFs rather than buying large-cap stocks directly. Indeed, the investors sold heavily in Samsung Electronics and SK hynix in both months, with net sales of 55.9 billion won and 92.4 billion won, respectively, in October alone. Among individual stocks, only SK Square (28.6 billion won) and Samsung SDI (12.5 billion won) saw net buying. Three of the five most-bought products this month were ETFs. Last month, all five were individual stocks: Samsung Electronics preferred shares, Samsung Electro-Mechanics, Samsung SDI (11.7 billion won), Doosan Enerbility (8.2 billion won) and Doosan Fuel Cell (7.7 billion won).
Another notable trend is a wager on a rise in the overall market. This month the investors net bought 22.5 billion won of KODEX Leverage, which tracks twice the daily return of the KOSPI 200 index, and 10.5 billion won of KODEX 200. By contrast, they net sold 8 billion won of KODEX 200 Futures Inverse 2X, which gains when the index falls. Among index-linked products, they trimmed bearish positions and concentrated buying on bullish ones with a longer-term view.
An official at a major brokerage said the defining feature this month is that high-net-worth investors are reducing direct exposure to large-cap chip stocks while still placing weight on the prospect of gains in the sector and the market as a whole.