Retail Investors Snap up W20 Trillion Samsung Shares

Retail investors have bought W20.06 trillion worth of Samsung Electronics shares so far this season, which is a lot more than the W15.7 trillion they spent over the whole of this past year, when the stock started booming (US$1=W1,118).

Half of most W40.98 trillion worth of shares retail investors bought in the domestic stock market until this week were Samsung Electronics.

They snapped up W16.95 trillion worth of ordinary shares and W3.12 trillion worth of desired shares.

Most seem to be to be novices. Samsung Securities analyst Chung Myung-ji said, "First-time stock investors probably chose Samsung Electronics because they would like to invest in a well-known company that seems to entail the lowest risk. Even conservative investors felt they would lose out if indeed they kept their profit the lender and chose Samsung stocks instead that are largely stable and promise dividends."

The cost of per share soared from W81,000 late this past year to W96,800 in intraday trading on Jan. 11 but stabilized in the mid-80,000 range. The average buy price of Samsung shares by retail investors up to now this season is W84,700, though Thursday's closing price was W83,400.