S. Korean retail investors swoop on 'meme-stock' AMC this month

South Korea retail investors have traded more than $1.7 billion worth of shares in AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc., one of the social media-driven meme stocks, this month, data showed Friday.

Local individual investors' transactions of shares in the top US movie theater chain came to $1.76 billion in the first eight trading sessions of this month, according to the data from the Korea Securities Depository.

AMC Entertainment became the most-bought overseas stock by South Korean retail investors during the period, far outpacing runner-up Telsa Inc.

South Korean individual investors traded $504 million worth of shares in the electric car giant during the period.

Local retail investors' net buying of AMC Entertainment stood at $47.72 million, the second largest among overseas shares, trailing global house-sharing platform Airbnb Inc. with $51.03 million.

Along with GameStop Corp., AMC Entertainment is a so-called meme stock that has seen a price jump not because of its performance but rather because of hype on social media.

South Korean retail investors are swooping on AMC Entertainment as day traders of the US online community Reddit have sent the movie theater operator soaring recently after driving up prices of GameStop early this year.

Shares in AMC Entertainment, which traded at $2 at the beginning of this year, began to shoot up in late May and spiked 95.2 percent to close at a new high of $62.55 on June 2.

On the same day, AMC Entertainment shares soared to an intra-session high of $72.62 before plunging 17.92 percent the next day.

South Korean retail investors have also snapped up other recently surging meme stocks this month, with their trading of Blackberry and GameStop reaching $26.43 million and $16.78 million, respectively, during the eight-session period. (Yonhap)