Arigato, SK hynix: Japanese investor claims to make 1 billion yen betting...

A screenshot image of showing investment details of a Japanese retail investor [JOONGANG ILBO]

Foreign retail investors are cashing in on Korea’s rapidly surging stock market as they rush to profit from the rally — among them, a Japanese investor claimed to make nearly 1 billion yen ($6.3 million) through bets on chipmaker SK hynix.

The investor recently shared a screen capture on X, formerly known as Twitter, showing that the account’s total assets had surpassed 1 billion yen, which is equivalent to 9.4 billion won.

“I had allocated 95 percent of my assets to SK hynix since June 2024,” said the Japanese investor, who claimed to be a programmer with 10 years of investing experience. “It had grown eightfold. Thank you, SK hynix."

The screen capture showed that the Japanese investor’s holdings in SK hynix were valued at about 993.69 million yen, representing a 720 percent return.

When the investor bought SK hynix in June 2024, the share traded in the 200,000-won ($134) range, and the benchmark Kospi was hovering around 3,200.

Price fluctuations of SK hynix share over a year [SCREEN CAPTURE]

The Kospi later fluctuated, falling to 2,028 points in April last year before rebounding sharply, more than tripling from its bottom.

SK hynix shares also fell into the 160,000 won range at one point before skyrocketing more than tenfold

as of Thursday. The stock traded at around 1.9 million won during the Thursday morning session.

The investor also claimed to have purchased shares of Samsung Electronics and U.S. chip company Micron Technology through Japan’s tax-free investment account system.

The number of new accounts opened by foreign investors at major Korean securities firms has risen more than 70 percent from a year earlier, according to the securities industry.

Foreign retail investors had previously favored indirect investments through exchange-traded funds, or ETFs, according to the industry. However, today’s foreign investors — especially Japanese and Chinese — have increasingly sought to buy blue-chip Korean stocks directly, including Samsung Electronics, SK hynix and Hyundai Motor.

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.