Retail investors' presence hits 6-year high in 2015

Retail investors' turnover in South Korea's stock market reached a six-year high in 2015, apparently boosted by low interest rates and efforts to search for high-yield investment tools, data showed Friday.

   The investors took up 67.6 percent of the daily turnover of 8.88 trillion won ($7.54 billion) on the main bourse and the secondary Kosdaq market last year, the highest since 67.7 percent tallied in 2009, the Korea Exchange data showed.

   Their portion has been on a constant decline, reaching 64.5 percent in 2011, 63.3 percent in 2012, 59.8 percent in 2013 and 58.9 percent in 2014.

   "Retail investors flocked to the stock market on hopes that they would carve out decent profit amid low interest rates," said Kang Yong-ku, an analyst at Samsung Securities.

   But their performance was not so good last year. Foreign investors' top 10 picks delivered an average yield of 27 percent last year, with the comparable figure for institutional investors being 10.6 percent.

   The top 10 most bought by individual investors dropped 34 percent on average last year, the data showed.

   POSCO, retail investors' No. 1 pick, dropped 40 percent last year, with SK hynix suffering a 36 percent plunge and Hyundai Motor a 12 percent drop. (Yonhap)