Withdrawing while rising! Global investors are pulling out of the South Korean stock market on a large scale, with 22 billion withdrawn in May.

The South Korean stock market has been a global leader in performance this year, yet foreign investors are withdrawing at a record pace.

On May 21, data disclosed by The Kobeissi Letter showed that foreign investors have net sold about $22 billion worth of South Korean stocks in May so far. If sales continue at this pace through the end of the month, it will set a historical record for the largest monthly outflow of foreign capital.

From the start of this year to now, overseas investors have cumulatively sold about $60 billion worth of KOSPI component stocks, also poised to break the annual record for net selling.

The sell-off is highly concentrated in semiconductor giants. Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix are the main targets for foreign investor reductions; SK Hynix alone has seen about $20 billion sold by foreign investors since the beginning of the year, with around $12 billion just in May.

Since November 2025, the cumulative net outflow from SK Hynix by foreign investors has reached about $26.7 billion.

This scale of capital outflow is particularly noteworthy because foreign investors play a pivotal role in the Korean market—they account for around 39% of KOSPI's total market capitalization.

Analysis points out that such a large and sustained reduction means that foreign investors are systematically shrinking their exposure to Korean equity assets, rather than just making structural portfolio adjustments.

It is worth noting that the above sell-offs are taking place against a backdrop of strong performance in the Korean stock market overall. This "rising and withdrawing" divergence reflects a deep-seated caution among foreign investors regarding the outlook for the Korean market.

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