Korean Retail Investors Go on SpaceX 'Buying Frenzy,' Netting 1.2 Trillion Won on Listing Day

South Korean retail investors investing in the U.S. stock market, colloquially known as "Seohak Ants" (Western Ants), bought more than 1 trillion won worth of shares in space exploration company SpaceX on its listing day, data showed.

It is rare for South Korean retail investors to go on a "buying frenzy" of over 1 trillion won in a single day for a single stock listed on the U.S. market.

Today (June 17), according to the financial investment industry, the net purchase of SpaceX by retail investors on June 12 (local time) through 11 brokerages—including Toss Securities and the top 10 brokerages by equity capital such as Mirae Asset Securities and Korea Investment & Securities—totaled 1.2346 trillion won ($808.5 million, based on an exchange rate of 1,527 won per dollar).

According to SEIBro, the securities information portal of the Korea Securities Depository (KSD), the net purchase of SpaceX by retail investors on June 12 stood at $795.9 billion.

Some of the discrepancy is believed to be due to exchange rates.

Retail investors bought $834.6 billion worth of shares and sold $38.7 billion worth.

June 12 was the day SpaceX listed on the Nasdaq, meaning investors poured more than 1 trillion won into purchasing SpaceX shares in a single day.

This is more than 30 times the size of the second-largest net purchase on the same day, the ProShares UltraPro QQQ ETF ($24.93 million).

Although Toss Securities is a small to mid-sized brokerage, it is the most widely used firm by South Korean retail investors investing in U.S. stocks, ranking first in overseas stock market share (based on foreign currency securities brokerage fees) in the first quarter of this year, following last year.

A single-day net purchase of 1.2 trillion won for a single stock is the largest in recent history.

Prior to the SpaceX listing this month, the stock most heavily purchased in a single day by South Korean retail investors was "SOXL" (Direxion Daily Semiconductors Bull 3X Shares ETF) on June 4.

This ETF, which tracks three times the daily performance of the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index, saw net purchases of $514.22 million (785.2 billion won) on June 4.

The net purchase amount for this ETF was 25 times that of the second-place stock on that day, but the capital spent on buying SpaceX shares was more than 1.5 times the net purchase amount of this ETF.

This massive buying spree is interpreted as reflecting expectations that the stock price will continue to rise in the future amid surging interest in SpaceX.

SpaceX's public offering price was $135. It began trading at $150 on its listing day, soared to as high as $176 during the session, and closed at $161.11, up 19.3%.

Based on the closing price, South Korean retail investors are estimated to have purchased around 5 million shares of SpaceX.

As a result, in just one day, SpaceX secured a spot in the top 30 U.S. stocks held by South Korean retail investors.

This is larger than the holding value (appraised value) of ASML ($774.7 billion), which ranked 35th as of June 11 (local time), and is close behind "KORU" (Direxion Daily MSCI South Korea Bull 3X Shares, $815.8 billion), which tracks three times the daily performance of the South Korean stock market.

Furthermore, SpaceX closed up 19.6% on June 15 (local time), its second day of trading, raising expectations that the two-day net purchase by South Korean retail investors will exceed 2 trillion won.

According to SEIBro, the securities information portal of the Korea Securities Depository, South Korean retail investors had also net purchased $316.54 million worth of "Tema Space Innovators ETF" (NASA), an ETF that holds SpaceX, over the past month leading up to SpaceX's listing.
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.