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South Korea Archives | Page 28 of 127 | Smartkarma

Feb 25
0

Daily Brief South Korea: Korea Stock Exchange Kospi Index, Korea Stock Exchange KOSPI 200 and more

By | Daily Briefs, South Korea

In today’s briefing:

  • FSC Gives the Green Light for Full-Scale Short Selling Today: What It Means for Trading
  • Kospi Index Options Weekly (Feb 17 – 21): Hedge Considerations as Rally Stalls at 350

FSC Gives the Green Light for Full-Scale Short Selling Today: What It Means for Trading

By Sanghyun Park

  • The push for MSCI DM inclusion drove Korea’s full short-selling resumption, clearing the KRX index rights issue, allowing MSCI to roll out derivatives, making full short selling the final step.
  • With full short-selling back, traders are watching for large-scale quant funds to return, potentially boosting liquidity across the market alongside the ATS launch, after years of individual large-cap setups.
  • The market is watching how full short-selling resumption narrows bid-ask spreads and impacts sector rotation, prompting traders to prepare setups for the broader market shift.

Kospi Index Options Weekly (Feb 17 – 21): Hedge Considerations as Rally Stalls at 350

By John Ley

  • After eight consecutive days of gains, the Kospi rally paused in the last two sessions, closing just above 350.
  • The 350 area aligns with several key levels from the past three years.
  • For those looking to hedge recent gains, we recommend two preferred hedge strategies.

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Feb 22
0

Daily Brief South Korea: Miwon Specialty Chemical, HD Hyundai Marine Solution , Korea Stock Exchange KOSPI 200 and more

By | Daily Briefs, South Korea

In today’s briefing:

  • Passive Flow Action Around Kumyang: Eyes on Miwon SC for the Play
  • Recent Block Deal Sale on HD Hyundai Marine Solution and Headwinds on Korean Shipbuilding Sector
  • KOSPI 200 – Upcoming BOK Rate Decision: Navigating Market Moves and Profit Opportunities

Passive Flow Action Around Kumyang: Eyes on Miwon SC for the Play

By Sanghyun Park

  • KRX will replace Kumyang with the top backup from Materials—Miwon Specialty Chemical (268280 KS)—based on the last rebalancing.
  • Kumyang jumped 15% today, but it’s likely just speculative mania off the battery sector bounce—not a sign they dodged KRX’s penalty.
  • Kumyang still trades like a casino, and with this trade volume, its KOSPI 200 exit likely has minimal passive impact. The cleaner trade is on the inclusion name.

Recent Block Deal Sale on HD Hyundai Marine Solution and Headwinds on Korean Shipbuilding Sector

By Douglas Kim

  • On 19 February, KKR sold 2 million shares (4.49%) stake in HD Hyundai Marine Solution at 147,500 won (9.3% discount to the previous day’s closing price), representing 295 billion won.
  • Therefore, we would argue that these major shipbuilding shares in Korea (such as HD Hyundai Heavy Industries and Hanwha Ocean) could face more difficult headwinds in the coming months. 
  • KKR’s timing of its block deal sale of HD Hyundai Marine Solution also reflects its attempt to partially sell its shares while the stock price is still at lofty levels. 

KOSPI 200 – Upcoming BOK Rate Decision: Navigating Market Moves and Profit Opportunities

By Gaudenz Schneider

  • The Bank of Korea is expected to cut interest rates to 2.75% on 25 February 2025. The decision, however, is not expected to be unanimous and some analysts argue against.
  • Historical data from 120 BoK announcements and subsequent moves in the Korea Stock Exchange KOSPI 200 (KOSPI2 INDEX EQUITY) is examined.
  • Options market pricing seems to lean toward a “surprise and no-change” outcome. Traders can seek opportunities with short straddles or long puts depending on anticipated outcomes.

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Feb 21
0

Daily Brief South Korea: Samsung Electronics Pref Shares, E Mart Inc, Jyp Entertainment and more

By | Daily Briefs, South Korea

In today’s briefing:

  • Clarifying Samsung Life’s Position on How Samsung Electronics Structures Its Shareholder Returns
  • Growing Importance of ACT – Korea’s Largest Minority Shareholders Platform
  • China Could Lift Ban on Korean Popular Culture (Hallyu) As Early As May 2025

Clarifying Samsung Life’s Position on How Samsung Electronics Structures Its Shareholder Returns

By Sanghyun Park

  • Samsung Life isn’t getting a boost from Samsung Fire, so they need to stay focused on managing equity to maintain their K-ICS ratio.
  • They’ll use capital securities issuance as a quick fix but must also monitor their Samsung Electronics stake, a major asset, to manage the situation effectively.
  • Samsung Electronics will likely focus on dividends over buybacks. Watch for a pair trade setup between common and preferred shares, favoring long positions on preferreds.

Growing Importance of ACT – Korea’s Largest Minority Shareholders Platform

By Douglas Kim

  • In this insight, we discuss about the growing importance of ACT, the largest minority shareholders platform (https://www.act.ag/) in Korea with nearly 100,000 members and market share of more than 50%. 
  • Recently, ACT has been demanding corporate governance improvements on the following companies: E-Mart, DB Hitek, Lotte Shopping, Youlchon Chem, Hanmi Science, and Solu-M. 
  • ACT has played an important role in the recent shareholder return polices announced by E-Mart which announced a sharply higher total shareholder return policy including higher dividends and share cancellations.

China Could Lift Ban on Korean Popular Culture (Hallyu) As Early As May 2025

By Douglas Kim

  • One of the big thematic events on the Korean stock market has been the expectation that China could lift ban on Korean popular culture (Hallyu) as early as May 2025. 
  • China’s President Xi recently stated “Cultural exchanges are a valuable part of our bilateral relations [between China and Korea]. We should avoid any problems occurring in handling such matters.”
  • We provide a list of 40 stocks in Korea that could most benefit from the end of lifting ban of Korean popular culture. 

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Feb 20
0

Daily Brief South Korea: POSCO Holdings, HD Hyundai Marine Solution , Korea Stock Exchange KOSPI 200, Rainbow Robotics and more

By | Daily Briefs, South Korea

In today’s briefing:

  • Post-Ban Short Play Idea: TIGER Top 10 ETF Rebal in June
  • HD Hyundai Marine Placement – Very Well Flagged but Overhang Remains
  • EquiLend Gets in on Korea’s Securities Lending Digital Shift: Trading Impact
  • Insider Selling at Rainbow Robotics

Post-Ban Short Play Idea: TIGER Top 10 ETF Rebal in June

By Sanghyun Park

  • POSCO Holdings and Samsung SDI stand out for shorting, as both were hit hard by the EV battery chasm. With June rebal looming, they’re likely getting the boot.
  • Samsung Biologics and Hanwha Aerospace could replace them, with a large float cap gap and strong price momentum, making it unlikely for the gap to flip by May.
  • As June rebalancing nears, volume could drop, increasing passive impact. With shorting back, passive flow intensity may rise, leading to significant price action.

HD Hyundai Marine Placement – Very Well Flagged but Overhang Remains

By Sumeet Singh

  • KKR & Co (KKR US) is looking to raise around US$160m via selling some of its stake in HD Hyundai Marine Solution (443060 KS) .
  • KKR had come out of its IPO linked lockup in Nov 2024 and had earlier tried to launch a deal in Dec 2024. Hence, the selldown is very well flagged.
  • In this note, we will talk about the placement and run the deal through our ECM framework.

EquiLend Gets in on Korea’s Securities Lending Digital Shift: Trading Impact

By Sanghyun Park

  • The remaining third of Korea’s local securities lending market is moving to digital, potentially sparking a whole new trading landscape.
  • Integrating EquiLend with local platforms boosts post-short-selling volume and shifts a large portion of manual trades into the digital space.
  • This could spark new algo trading strategies, and with short selling resuming March 31, we’ll need to track how the flow evolves.

Insider Selling at Rainbow Robotics

By Douglas Kim

  • On 19 February, it was reported that Rainbow Robotics’ VP Kim In-Hyeok sold 30,000 of his 55,000 shares (0.28% stake) on the 14th. Disposal price was 413,796 won per share.
  • At end of 2024, Samsung Electronics announced that it will become the largest shareholder of Rainbow Robotics which has been the key reason why Rainbow Robotics’ share price has surged.
  • Despite Samsung Electronics becoming the largest shareholder of Rainbow Robotics, the overly stretched valuations could result in higher downside risk ahead. It is trading at P/S of 106x in 2026.

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Feb 19
0

Daily Brief South Korea: Rainbow Robotics, Classys and more

By | Daily Briefs, South Korea

In today’s briefing:

  • Resumption of Short Selling in Korea on 31 March and Potential Short Selling Candidates
  • Classys (214150 KS): 2024 Sales Beat Guidance; New Record Sales Target for 2025

Resumption of Short Selling in Korea on 31 March and Potential Short Selling Candidates

By Douglas Kim

  • The resumption of short selling in Korea will start again on 31 March. There has been a ban on short selling in Korea since November 2023.
  • We provide some short selling candidates in Korea. Their sharply increasing share prices in the past five years have resulted in much more burdensome valuations.
  • Despite their burdensome valuations and sharply higher share prices, the remains high risk of some of these stocks that could overshoot to the upside.

Classys (214150 KS): 2024 Sales Beat Guidance; New Record Sales Target for 2025

By Tina Banerjee

  • Classys (214150 KS) reported record-high revenue of KRW243B for 2024, 8% ahead of guidance. Operating profit grew 37% YoY to KRW 123B, and the operating profit margin improved to 50.4%.
  • Volnewmer remained the key growth driver. Volnewmer has exceeded 1,200 units in annual global sales mainly due to successful launches in major countries including Brazil, Thailand, and the U.S.
  • The company has guided for 2025 sales of KRW350B, up 44% YoY. 2025 operating profit margin is expected to improve from the operating profit margin of 48.1% reported in 4Q24.

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Feb 18
0

Daily Brief South Korea: T’Way Air, Samsung Electronics, Korea Stock Exchange KOSPI 200 and more

By | Daily Briefs, South Korea

In today’s briefing:

  • Daemyung Sono Group: Close to Acquiring the Controlling Stake in T’Way Air
  • A Real-World Take on the Market Worries Around the Samsung Life Act Proposal
  • Kospi Index Options Weekly (February 10 – 14): Call Volumes Rebound

Daemyung Sono Group: Close to Acquiring the Controlling Stake in T’Way Air

By Douglas Kim

  • After the market close on 17 February, it was announced that the Daemyung Sono Group is  close to acquiring the controlling stake in T’Way Air (091810 KS) from Yelimdang.
  • As the negotiations between the two sides have come to a near agreement, Daemyung Sono is expected to be able to appoint nine directors at the next upcoming AGM.
  • Typically in cases like this in Korea, the near term impact would be decline in share prices of T’Way Air and T’Way Holdings due to lack of an M&A play.

A Real-World Take on the Market Worries Around the Samsung Life Act Proposal

By Sanghyun Park

  • The Rebuilding Korea Party’s hints about this bill since Thursday are seen as a key reason Samsung Electronics’ stock has stalled, despite hype around affiliate shareholder returns.
  • With polls dipping, Lee is shifting right. Given the political shifts, pushing through the controversial Samsung Life Act seems unlikely for now.
  • Instead of focusing on legislative chances, we should see Samsung Electronics’ stock stall as a short-term entry opportunity ahead of the shareholder return announcement

Kospi Index Options Weekly (February 10 – 14): Call Volumes Rebound

By John Ley

  • Very low volatility rally with Kospi up 2.63% but still 7% below the 52-week high.
  • Implied vols moving in opposition to the rally, dropping 1 point on the week.  
  • Call volumes rebounded significantly with the most active Call strike trading more than twice as much as the most active Put strike.

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Feb 17
0

Daily Brief South Korea: Samsung Electronics Pref Shares and more

By | Daily Briefs, South Korea

In today’s briefing:

  • FSS Officially Rolls Out New Ex-Div Rule for Quarterly Divs; Sammy May Finally Join the Change

FSS Officially Rolls Out New Ex-Div Rule for Quarterly Divs; Sammy May Finally Join the Change

By Sanghyun Park

  • Starting this year, both year-end and interim divvies follow the new rule, with ex-div dates set after the payout is confirmed.
  • Quarterly dividend arbitrage will heat up, especially for high-yield bank stocks, attracting traders to cash in on the spread.
  • Samsung Electronics is likely to update bylaws at the March AGM, with Q1 payout ex-div dates set after the dividend is confirmed.

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Feb 16
0

Daily Brief South Korea: Samsung Electronics and more

By | Daily Briefs, South Korea

In today’s briefing:

  • Samsung’s 10T KRW Buyback Phase 2: The Timing of the Drop and How the Structure Is Looking

Samsung’s 10T KRW Buyback Phase 2: The Timing of the Drop and How the Structure Is Looking

By Sanghyun Park

  • The 2nd phase of the buyback, around 3T KRW with a 3-month window, could drop this week, likely by mid- or end-week.
  • The market’s worried Samsung might not retire the shares this time and could handle them differently.
  • The latest talk is that Samsung will retire the shares immediately, like Phase 1. This could be an inflection point for solid short-term price action—time to set up positions.

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Feb 15
0

Daily Brief South Korea: Samsung E&A, Hugel Inc and more

By | Daily Briefs, South Korea

In today’s briefing:

  • Top 10 Korean Stock Picks Bi-Weekly (17 February 2025)
  • Hugel Inc (145020 KS): Record High Performance in 2024; Continued Global Expansion to Drive Growth

Top 10 Korean Stock Picks Bi-Weekly (17 February 2025)

By Douglas Kim

  • In this insight, we provide the top 10 stocks picks in the Korean stock market for the two weeks starting 17 February.
  • The top 10 stock picks (bi-weekly) include Hyundai G.F. Holding, Binggrae, Cheil Worldwide, Hana Tour, Samsung Electronics (pref), Samsung E&A, Hyundai Elevator, KT Corp, Orion Corp, and Samsung Life Insurance. 
  • We started to incorporate top negative catalysts along with positive catalysts in our top stock picks bi-weekly. Top negative catalyst is tariffs. We tried to exclude companies exposed to tariffs.

Hugel Inc (145020 KS): Record High Performance in 2024; Continued Global Expansion to Drive Growth

By Tina Banerjee

  • Hugel Inc (145020 KS) reported record high sales, operating profit, and net profit in 2024, with the strong performance of botulinum toxin and fillers backed by the company’s global expansion.
  • Hugel aims to launch botulinum toxin in the U.S. within 1H25. The company aims for a 10% U.S. market share for aesthetic purposes within three years from the product release.
  • Hugel aims to expand its presence in more than 80 toxin markets (from 67 now), 70 dermal filler markets (current 52), and more than 10 cosmetics markets by 2028.

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Feb 14
0

Daily Brief South Korea: Samsung Electronics, Hana Financial and more

By | Daily Briefs, South Korea

In today’s briefing:

  • Samsung Life’s Official Move to Make Fire a Subsidiary: A Value-Up Play for Samsung’s Big Three
  • Korean Banks; Positive Fundamental and Share Price Trends for Hana (086790 KS) And Woori (316140 KS)

Samsung Life’s Official Move to Make Fire a Subsidiary: A Value-Up Play for Samsung’s Big Three

By Sanghyun Park

  • The FSS will review the subsidiary approval, with final approval expected from the FSC by early April. Market signals suggest a near-100% chance of Samsung Life getting the green light.
  • Samsung’s moves post-Lee Jae-yong’s Feb 3rd ruling signal a major pivot, setting up aggressive value-up plays across Samsung Life, Samsung Electronics, and Samsung C&T.
  • Shoring up Samsung Life’s finances triggers a domino effect, positioning Samsung Electronics and Samsung C&T to follow with their own shareholder-friendly moves.

Korean Banks; Positive Fundamental and Share Price Trends for Hana (086790 KS) And Woori (316140 KS)

By Victor Galliano

  • Our weighted metrics of share valuations, capital adequacy and credit quality feed into an investment valuation matrix; we look for opportunities where the risks are well discounted in current valuations
  • We stick with Hana Financial for its attractive valuations, PEG and equity risk premia; there is potential for management to deliver on its Value-Up plan over the medium term
  • Woori is the stand-out in terms of our matrix; this is based on valuation, PEG ratio, credit quality and its improving pre- and post-provision returns along with efficiency ratio

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