Small Investors Snap up Samsung Stocks

The number of small individual shareholders of Samsung Electronics has jumped 2.6 times through the first half of the year amid a stock-market bull run.

In line with the Financial Supervisory Service on Tuesday, the number of individuals who own significantly less than one percent of Samsung shares rose from 568,313 in late 2019 to 1 1.45 million by the end of June this season.

Individual investors purchased W8.36 trillion worth of Samsung shares in the first half of this year, making them the most used in the Korean currency markets (US$1=W1,187). Analysts said investors appear considered blue-chip stocks after the government's tightened real-estate regulations and ultra-low interest levels took the luster out of savings accounts.

At the same time, foreign and institutional investors unloaded W6.7 trillion and W1.99 trillion worth of Samsung shares in the first half of the entire year.

That means small individual shareholders now wield more power in the tech giant's management. As of the end of June, foreign investors owned 55 percent of Samsung and almost all shareholders only 21.2 percent, though a Byzantine system of cross-holding allows the Lee family to keep an iron grip.

Excluding the National Pension Service, which holds an 11.1 percent stake, individual investors now own 12.7 percent, up 1.3 percentage points when compared to end of 2019.