Daily Brief South Korea: Korea Stock Exchange KOSPI 200, SL Corp, HSD Engine Co., Ltd. and more

In today’s briefing:

Street Intel on NPS’s Buy Flow—the Key Swing Factor as Korea’s Short-Selling Comeback
Top 10 Korean Stock Picks and Key Catalysts Bi-Weekly (3 March 2025)
End of Mandatory Lock-Up Periods for 43 Companies in Korea in March 2025

Street Intel on NPS’s Buy Flow—the Key Swing Factor as Korea’s Short-Selling Comeback

NPS’s aggressive net buying over the past four months? Just a 3% buffer rebalance—not some structural bullish call on K-stocks.
Street intel points to NPS capping buys in the low-14% range, 1%p below target, only defending against dips. With short selling back on from March 31, further buying looks unlikely.
With NPS stepping back and retail still weak, no real size remains on the buy side. Short flow could hit harder than expected—time to price it in and adjust positioning.

In this insight, we provide the top 10 stocks picks and key catalysts in the Korean stock market for the two weeks starting 3 March.
Our top 10 Korean stock picks from 14 to 28 January are down on average 1.8%, slightly outperforming KOSPI which is down 2.2% in the same period.
The top 10 Korean stock picks (bi-weekly) include SL Corp, Korea Electric Terminal, BNK Financial, S1, LX International, Doubleugames, Samsung C&T, Amorepacific Corp (pref), SK Telecom, and POSCO International.

This insight provide a list of 43 stocks (2 KOSPI and 41 KOSDAQ) with end of mandatory lock-up periods for certain shares in March 2025.
Some of the companies mentioned in this insight which highlights the end of major lockup periods in March could help to narrow down the list of candidates for potential shorting.
Among these 43 stocks, the top five market cap stocks that could be sold after end of lock-up/total outstanding shares include Hanwha Engine, GI Innovation, Orum Therapeutics, and Angel Robotics.

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