Retail stock investors fare badly in H2

SEOUL, Nov. 6 (Yonhap) -- South Korean retail investors have posted dismal returns on their stock investment over the past four months, while foreigners have performed well, data showed Wednesday.

Individual investors registered an average investment return of minus 16.4 percent on their top 10 net-bought stocks between June 28, the final trading session of that month, and last Thursday, according to the data from the Korea Exchange.

Shares of Hotel Shilla Co., their top pick, tumbled 20.1 percent over the cited period, with Fila Korea recording the biggest price drop of 24.9 percent.

Retail investors also suffered negative returns on the remaining companies, including top automaker Hyundai Motor (minus 12.9 percent), LG Chem (minus 13.3 percent), steel giant POSCO (minus 13.5 percent) and leading mobile carrier SK Telecom (minus 8.5 percent).

In contrast, the comparable average return rate for foreign investors came to 11.7 percent over the cited period, with that for local institutions reaching 0.6 percent.

Foreigners' top pick was Samsung Electro-Mechanics, whose price surged 15.5 percent during the four-month period.

Other foreign choices include Samsung Electronics (7.2 percent), top mobile messenger app operator Kakao (7.6 percent) and chip giant SK hynix (18 percent).

Offshore investors logged the highest return of 43.9 percent on South Korea's top internet portal operator Naver, followed by bio giant Samsung BioLogics with 24.5 percent.

Meanwhile, individual investors chalked up an average return of minus 13.9 percent on their top 10 net-buy stocks in the first half of the year.
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