Samsung top pick for retail investors after US election

SEOUL — Retail investors scooped up 2.33 trillion won ($1.67 billion) worth of Samsung Electronics stocks since the U.S. presidential election, the country's main bourse said on Sunday.

Individuals purchased the chipmaker on bargain hunting for eight trading sessions through November 15 despite massive selloffs by foreigners, according to data from the Korea Exchange (KRX).

Foreign investors offloaded 2.48 trillion won worth of Samsung Electronics stocks during the eight-session period, reports Yonhap news agency.

Samsung Electronics has been on the decline in recent months, hitting an over four-year low of 49,900 won on Thursday amid worries over a possible scrapping of chip incentives by U.S. President-elect Donald Trump.

The drop is also attributable to disappointing earnings and a negative outlook for the global semiconductor industry under the incoming Trump government.

The world's largest memory chip maker has apparently fallen behind its local rival SK hynix Inc. in the high bandwidth memory (HBM) segment. HBM chips are in high demand due to their essential role in AI computing.

Its plans to supply its latest fifth-generation HBM3E products to AI chip giant Nvidia Corp. have been delayed due to quality concerns.

On Friday, Samsung Electronics announced a 10 trillion-won share buyback plan in the next 12 months to bolster its share price. On Friday, Samsung jumped 7.21 percent to close at 53,500 won.

It plans to cancel 3 trillion won of them within the next three months.

Meanwhile, Samsung will buy back its own shares worth a combined 10 trillion won ($7.16 billion) over the next year as part of efforts to boost its shareholder value following a recent slide in its stock price.

In the buyback plan approved by the board of directors, a combined 3 trillion won of shares will be bought back within three months starting Monday and continuing until February 17, the company said in a statement.