Foreign investors who heavily invested in SpaceX immediately after its IPO are now pivoting back to AI semiconductors. Following an initial surge, SpaceX's stock has lost momentum, prompting these investors to sell off their shares. Domestic aerospace ETFs, which had competed to attract investors using SpaceX as a draw, are also facing significant losses.
According to the Korea Securities Depository's securities information portal, Saveuro, the most purchased stock by foreign investors in the U.S. market last week (June 22-26) was the Direxion Daily Semiconductors Bull 3X Shares ETF, which tracks the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index threefold. The net purchase amounted to $627.67 million (approximately 9.64 trillion won), nearing 1 trillion won.
Following this were Micron ($312.5 million), the Roundhill Memory ETF ($204.9 million), and Intel ($134.06 million), with all top four net purchases related to semiconductor stocks.
This marks a stark contrast to the period immediately following SpaceX's IPO. From the listing on June 12, foreign investors bought $1.9496 billion worth of SpaceX shares over four days, but last week they sold off $69.2 million.
Initially, SpaceX's stock price surged from the offering price of $135 to over $200 during trading. However, profit-taking led to a decline, with the stock dropping to $153 by June 25. In contrast, Micron reported better-than-expected earnings, boosting investor sentiment in the AI semiconductor sector, which likely contributed to the shift of funds back to semiconductors.
In this context, domestic aerospace ETFs have also been hit hard by the adjustment in SpaceX's stock price. According to the Korea Exchange, over the past month, only the WON U.S. Aerospace and Defense ETF recorded a positive return of 3.01% among U.S. aerospace ETFs. Meanwhile, the TIGER U.S. Space Tech ETF (-42.56%), SOL U.S. Aerospace TOP10 (-35.16%), KODEX U.S. Aerospace (-30.51%), and ACE U.S. Space Tech Active (-30.17%) all suffered double-digit losses.
The key factor distinguishing performance was whether or not SpaceX was included in the ETF. The WON U.S. Aerospace and Defense ETF, which did not include SpaceX, diversified its investments across aerospace and defense value chain companies, resulting in positive returns. In contrast, other funds, in a rush to include SpaceX amid competition for the first domestic inclusion, bought shares at inflated prices after the IPO, leading to significant declines in their returns as the stock price adjusted.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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