[DigitalToday reporter Sangyeop Oh (오상엽)] As the domestic stock market continues to pull back, South Korean investors’ net buying of U.S. stocks has topped 5 trillion won this month. Buying was concentrated in a leveraged U.S. semiconductor exchange-traded fund (ETF) and SK Hynix American depositary receipts (ADRs).

According to the Korea Securities Depository’s securities information portal SEIBro on July 28, South Korean investors’ net buying of U.S. stocks from July 1 to 27 totaled $3,589,990,000 (about 5.28 trillion won).

Net buying stood at $2,530,260,000 as of July 23, but rose by $1,059,730,000 (about 1.56 trillion won) over the next 2 trading days.

Net buying of U.S. stocks this month is about 5.5 times larger than last month’s total net buying of $632,960,000.

By stock, the Direxion Daily Semiconductor Bull 3X ETF (SOXL), which seeks to track 3 times the daily performance of the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index, was the largest at $1,759,190,000.

Net buying of SK Hynix ADRs was tallied at $812,380,000. That was up by about $198,710,000 from $613,670,000 on July 23.

Alphabet saw net buying of $295,670,000, while ProShares Ultra QQQ, which seeks to track 2 times the daily performance of the Nasdaq 100 index, recorded net buying of $227,390,000.

By contrast, net buying of the Direxion Daily MSCI South Korea Bull 3X ETF (KORU), which seeks to track 3 times the performance of the domestic stock market, fell to $192,040,000 from $213,370,000.

Net buying of KORU rose to as high as $237,560,000 on July 16, but investors appeared to have reduced their weighting as weakness in the domestic stock market persisted.

Volatility concerns in the domestic market grew as sharp swings repeated in the KOSPI and KOSDAQ, and sidecars and circuit breakers were triggered in succession.

As a result, the data suggest some investors who had returned to the domestic stock market have again shifted funds to U.S. semiconductor and technology stocks and leveraged ETFs.