South Korea's stock market continued its upward trend in the first quarter of this year amid strong performances by Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, with the National Pension Service (NPS), a major institutional investor, recording returns in the 30% range and seeing its stock holdings swell to nearly 80 trillion won.
According to financial information provider FnGuide on the 9th, the valuation of 291 listed companies in which the NPS holds stakes of 5% or more stood at 323.7589 trillion won as of the 7th of this month. This represents an increase of 78.5507 trillion won compared to 245.2082 trillion won at the end of last year. While the first quarter return (32.0%) was lower than the fourth quarter compared to the third quarter of last year (35.4%), the valuation exceeded the previous quarter (69.6944 trillion won).
This is interpreted as a result of soaring stock prices of the "semiconductor duo" Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix. While the NPS's stake in Samsung Electronics remained the same at 7.75%, its valuation surged 63.8% from 54.9906 trillion won at the end of last year to 90.1223 trillion won. During the same period, the stake in SK Hynix increased from 7.35% to 7.50%, and its valuation rose 40.7% from 34.8135 trillion won to 48.9850 trillion won. Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix accounted for 62.7% of the total increase in the NPS's stock valuations in the first quarter.
Following these two stocks, Hyundai Motor (2.6418 trillion won), Hanwha Aerospace (2.4326 trillion won), and Mirae Asset Securities saw the largest increases in stock valuations, in that order. The NPS holds stakes of 7.31%, 7.92%, and 8.37% in these three stocks, respectively. The stake in Mirae Asset Securities was increased by an additional 1.18 percentage points in the first quarter.
Meanwhile, 22 new stocks were added to the NPS's portfolio of holdings above 5% in the first quarter, while 15 stocks fell below the 5% threshold. As a result, the number of stocks in which the NPS holds stakes of 5% or more increased from 269 in the previous quarter to 276.
Among the newly added stocks with stakes above 5%, 14 were from KOSDAQ, significantly outnumbering the 8 from KOSPI. Daejoo Electronic Materials (10.01%), Vinatech (8.68%), and RF Materials (7.43%) — the top three stocks with the sharpest increases in stake — were all KOSDAQ stocks. This is interpreted as the NPS purchasing large quantities of KOSDAQ stocks amid heightened market expectations following the government's KOSDAQ market revitalization policies.
There were 114 stocks with no change in stake, including Samsung Electronics (7.75%), and 105 stocks with increased stakes, including SK Hynix. There were 74 stocks with decreased stakes, including YG Entertainment (5.09% → 5.05%). Notably, HD Hyundai Infracore, which had an NPS stake of 13.21% in the fourth quarter of last year, saw its stake drop below 5% in the first quarter, revealing that the fund had sold off a significant portion of its holdings.
