Korean investors turn net sellers of GameStop shares

South Korean investors were net sellers of US-based video game retailer GameStop solely on the day when the short squeeze started to materialize, data showed Sunday.

Korean investors -- both individuals and corporations -- net sold GameStop shares worth $54 million on Tuesday, according to the latest data from the Korea Securities Depository. Trading data from Wednesday, when GameStop‘s share price peaked, was not available as the foreign securities settlement date is three business days after the transactions.

KSD data also showed that the video game business was Korean investors’ most actively traded foreign stock on the same day. Koreans transacted $139.7 million worth of GameStop shares, beating US giants such as electric vehicle maker Tesla ($123.9 million) and electronic device maker Apple ($66.3 million).

Before Tuesday, Koreans were holding $539.7 million in GameStop shares, seventh most among foreign listed shares.

The news comes as the war between day traders and institutional short sellers unfolds in the US stock markets, triggering an extreme level of share price volatility of some target companies that established Wall Street investors had shorted. Day traders on a Reddit forum scrambled to wreck short sellers’ bearish bets on companies including GameStop by pushing up their share prices.

One of the most prominent targets was the brick-and-mortar video game store operator listed on the New York Stock Exchange since 2002.

The stock price of the US company rose by 92.7 percent on Tuesday, as GameStop shares equal to some 140 percent of its available shares were sold short. The skyrocketing stock price reportedly triggered a total of $6 billion in losses due to the short squeeze as of Tuesday, forcing short sellers including Melvin Capital to buy shares at a higher price than expected to prevent greater losses.

From Tuesday, GameStop shares were on a rollercoaster ride, rising 134.8 percent Wednesday, then falling 44.3 percent Thursday and jumping 67.9 percent Friday.

The battle between retail traders mostly on stock trading platform Robinhood and the short sellers has so far shown no signs of abating even amid intervention, after US amateur investment platforms including Robinhood halted the buying of GameStop shares, among other securities including cinema chain AMC and tech device maker BlackBerry, on Thursday.

By Son Ji-hyoung (consnow@heraldcorp.com)