S. Korean retail investors’ Tesla holdings top $10bn

Seoul, Jan 26 : South Korean retail investors holdings of shares in electric vehicle leader Tesla Motors Inc soared nearly 32 per cent this year to cross the $10 billion mark.Local individual investors owned $10.

33 billion worth of Tesla shares as of Friday, up 31.9 per cent from the end of last year, according to the data from the Korea Securities Depository.The figure also represents a 73 times increase from the end of 2019 and were South Korean retail investors most-bought issue among foreign shares.South Korean retail investors ownership of Tesla accounted for 1.28 per cent of the EV carmakers market value of $825.3 billion as of Friday, up from 1.17 per cent at the end of 2020.The sharp rise in individual investors Tesla holdings came amid a jump in its share prices, which promoted individuals buying binge.Tesla shares finished at $846.64 on Friday, up about 20 per cent from the end of last year, reports Yonhap news agency.This year alone, individual investors bought a net $779 million worth of Tesla shares, taking up some 23 per cent of local investors total net buying of overseas stocks.Smartphone giant Apple was the second-most-bought stock by South Korean retail investors with $3.55 billion as of Friday, up 18.7 per cent from end-December.Amazon came in third with $1.84 billion, but retail investors holdings of the e-commerce behemoth fell 10.7 per cent from the end of last year, according to the data.