Following a 41-month high in foreign ownership levels for Samsung Electronics, SK hynix also competed with its record high foreign ownership levels last month.
According to the Korea Exchange on May 13, the foreign ownership percentage of Samsung Electronics, the largest market capitalization and leading semiconductor company in South Korea, reached 56.02 percent as of the closing price on May 9. This marks its highest level in three years and five months since December 17, 2020, when it was 56.03 percent.
A notable point is that following Samsung Electronics, the foreign ownership percentage of SK hynix, which is considered one of the two major pillars in the South Korean semiconductor market, recently reached a “record-high” level. As of May 10, SK hynix recorded a foreign ownership percentage of 54.32 percent, which soared to 54.92 percent on the 15th of last month.
Foreign investors have recorded net buying of 8.31 trillion won (US$6.07 billion) in Samsung Electronics since the beginning of this year alone. SK hynix also saw net buying of 1.26 trillion won. Considering that the total net buying amount by foreign investors in the overall KOSPI market this year stands at 20.76 trillion won, the net buying amount for Samsung Electronics and SK hynix combined reaches 9.57 trillion won, accounting for 46.1 percent of the total net buying amount in the KOSPI market, nearing half.
Unlike last year when the prices of memory semiconductors in which Samsung Electronics and SK hynix have clear strengths in the global market hit a low point, the fact that prices have shown a clear upward trend since the beginning of this year is considered a definite positive factor.
Taiwanese market research firm TrendForce has forecasted that fixed prices for DRAM and NAND flash in the second quarter of this year will increase by 13 to 18 percent and 15 to 20 percent, respectively. This prediction suggests that the price increase rates will exceed the initially projected figures of DRAM by 3 to 8 percent and NAND flash by 13 to 18 percent.
With the ongoing forecast of increasing global demand for AI semiconductors, there is also a sustained anticipation that the strong demand for high bandwidth memory (HBM), a crucial component in AI semiconductors, will further boost the stock prices of Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix.
TrendForce has recently forecasted a surge in demand for next-generation HBM products such as the 5th generation 12-stack HBM3E. It expects the demand growth rate for HBM to be 200 percent this year and to reach 400 percent next year. Consequently, it predicts that the proportion of HBM in the overall DRAM market will increase from 2 percent last year to 5 percent this year and exceed 10 percent next year.
