Foreign investors pull over $100B from South Korean stocks as KOSPI nearly doubles

Here’s a paradox worth sitting with: South Korean stocks have been among the best-performing equities on the planet in the first half of 2026, and foreign investors have been sprinting for the exits anyway.

Over $100 billion in foreign capital left South Korean equities in the first six months of the year. June alone accounted for $30 billion of that figure. The KOSPI index, meanwhile, nearly doubled during the same period.

Who’s selling, and how much

Mutual funds offloaded $7.5 billion worth of South Korean equities in June alone. Pension funds followed with $4.35 billion in sales. Hedge funds added another $1.87 billion to the pile. The primary targets were Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, two companies that sit at the center of the global semiconductor supply chain and have benefited enormously from AI-related demand.

Domestic retail investors filled the gap