Daily Brief South Korea: Hanwha Systems Co Ltd, Samsung Life Insurance, NCSOFT Corp and more

In today’s briefing:

MV Global Defense Industry Index Rebalance: Hanwha Systems Added as Stocks Play Offence
Top 10 Korean Stock Picks and Key Catalysts Bi-Weekly (12 to 26 September 2025)
How Do We Play the Short-Term Buy Flows Sparked by NPS Reacting Fast to the President’s Subtle Push?

MV Global Defense Industry Index Rebalance: Hanwha Systems Added as Stocks Play Offence

Hanwha Systems Co Ltd (272210 KS) will be added to the MarketVector Global Defense Industry Index at the close on 19 September.
The constituent change, float changes and capping changes result in an estimated one-way turnover of 3.1% resulting in a round-trip trade of US$437m.
Inflows to the tracking ETF have slowed down but there could be more inflows after a period of consolidation in the underlying stocks.

In this insight, we provide the top 10 stock picks and key catalysts in the Korean stock market for the next two weeks (12 to 26 September 2025).
Our top 10 picks were up on average 7.4% from 29 August to 12 September, outperforming KOSPI which was up 6.6% in the same period.
Top 10 picks in this bi-weekly include KCC Corp, Nongshim Holdings, KT&G, Paradise, Samsung Life Insurance, Hana Financial, SK Inc, CJ Corp, Lg Chem, and Lotte Tour Development.

Lee slammed NPS’s logic, questioning its local equity cuts; Friday, the fund responded with ₩186.3bn net KOSPI buys — biggest since his inauguration.
NPS sat out September’s rally, so Friday’s ₩186bn KOSPI buy looks like a reactive pivot to Lee’s comments, sparking local desks’ chatter and weekend buzz.
KOSPI mid-caps with big NPS stakes (~5%+) could see short-term buying, as reactive flows follow Presidential Office chatter, with mid-caps below KRW 5tn offering the biggest price impact.

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