South Korean retailers pile up on US stocks

Foreign lure: Currency traders at the at the foreign exchange dealing room of the KEB Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul. Despite government efforts to boost the domestic stock market, South Korean investors are pouring even more funds into US stocks. - AP

SOUTH Korea’s mom-and-pop investors are defying last week’s global financial markets rout by pouring even more funds into US stocks, a years-long trend that analysts and investors bet will continue due to the depressed value proposition at home.

South Korean retailers have been scooping up Nvidia , Tesla Inc and Apple shares this year fuelled in part by the worldwide artificial intelligence (AI)-frenzy, a move that comes despite government efforts to boost the domestic stock market.