National Pension Service Buys $1.11 Billion of SK Hynix, Sells $699 Million of SK Square

NPS Rebalancing Over the Past Six Weeks Drives $1.11 Billion Purchase of SK Hynix

SK Hynix Tops Net-Buy List

SK Square Leads Net Sales

South Korea’s National Pension Service bought more SK Hynix shares than any other stock after resuming portfolio rebalancing, while SK Square was its biggest sale.

Data from the Korea Exchange showed pension funds were net buyers of 1.5339 trillion won ($1.11 billion) of SK Hynix shares from Aug. 1 through Sept. 14, after rebalancing began on Aug. 1.

Other net purchases included SK Innovation with 283.1 billion won ($205 million), S-Oil with 210.9 billion won ($153 million), Celltrion with 210.5 billion won ($152 million), Naver with 184.2 billion won ($133 million), Samsung Biologics with 156.8 billion won ($114 million), DB Insurance with 151.3 billion won ($110 million), SK Telecom with 150.9 billion won ($109 million) and LG Electronics with 141.4 billion won ($102 million).

Over the same period, pension funds were net sellers of 964.6 billion won ($699 million) of SK Square shares, the largest selloff among listed stocks.

They also sold Samsung Electronics shares worth 389.8 billion won ($282 million), Samsung Electro-Mechanics shares worth 329 billion won ($238 million), LG Innotek shares worth 175.4 billion won ($127 million), Hyundai Motor shares worth 163.6 billion won ($119 million), Hyundai Mobis shares worth 152.7 billion won ($111 million), Samsung Life Insurance shares worth 146.8 billion won ($106 million), Hanwha Ocean shares worth 125.1 billion won ($91 million) and Mirae Asset Securities shares worth 112.1 billion won ($81 million).

Most pension-fund trading tracked by the Korea Exchange is generally understood to come from the National Pension Service.

Lee Su, Hankyung.com reporter, 2su@hankyung.com