Seoul, March 29 Major chipmaker SK hynix was the top pick for foreign investors in the first quarter of the year, data showed on Saturday.
The foreign investors scooped up a net 1.88 trillion won (US$1.28 billion) worth of SK hynix shares during the January-March period on hopes for a turnaround in the sector, according to the data compiled by the Korea Exchange, reports Yonhap news agency.
Defence firm Hanhwa Aerospace and internet portal operator Naver came in next with their net buyings of 733 billion won and 434 billion won, respectively.
In contrast, they heavily sold shares worth 1.18 trillion won worth of shipbuilder Hanhwa Ocean in the first quarter, followed by top automaker Hyundai Motor with 790 billion won and leading banking group KB Financial with 548 billion won, the data showed.
In the first three months of the year, they sold a net 4.73 trillion won worth of local stocks.
Meanwhile, the combined operating profit of South Korea's top 500 companies surged 66 per cent from a year earlier in 2024, driven largely by a rebound in the global semiconductor market, a report showed.
According to the report from corporate tracker CEO Score, the total operating profit of the top 500 firms reached 183.7 trillion won ($125.3 billion) in 2024, up from 110.6 trillion won the previous year, reports Yonhap news agency.
The companies' combined annual sales rose 5.8 percent to 2,523 trillion won from 2,384 trillion won in 2023. Net profit jumped 74.5 percent over the same period.
The sharp rise in operating profit was led mainly by the strong performance from chipmakers SK hynix Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co. amid robust demand for artificial intelligence (AI) memory products.
SK hynix recorded the largest growth, swinging to an operating profit of 23.5 trillion won from a 7.7 trillion-won loss in 2023, marking a gain of over 31.2 trillion won.
The company benefited from soaring demand for high bandwidth memory (HBM), a key component for AI semiconductors.
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