![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/news-p.v1.20260415.9551347986e5437e919372f24b3ce7d2_P1.jpg\"\/ "\\"Pension")
The Kospi and Kosdaq both rose on hopes for a resumption of US-Iran peace talks. An employee at the Korea Exchange in Yeouido, Seoul, checks the closing levels of the Kospi and Kosdaq and the share prices of major stocks including Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix on Aug. 15. Photo by Oh Seung-hyun<\/p>\n
South Korea’s pension funds have begun rebalancing their portfolios as SK hynix (000660.KS) shares broke above the 1.3 million won mark on expectations of an artificial intelligence (AI) chip supercycle. The funds have sold part of their SK hynix holdings, which have surged, and instead concentrated on buying SK Square (402340.KS).<\/p>\n
According to the Korea Exchange on the 29th, pension funds net sold 157.1 billion won ($107 million) worth of SK hynix shares over the 10 trading days from the 14th through the 28th. That was the second-largest net sell during the period after KODEX 200 (-182.7 billion won).<\/p>\n
SK Square, on the other hand, was a focus of buying. Pension funds net bought 98.9 billion won worth of SK Square during the same period, the second-largest purchase after HD Hyundai Heavy Industries (222.1 billion won).<\/p>\n
Market watchers see the move as profit-taking and rebalancing, as SK hynix’s weighting has expanded rapidly following its recent surge. SK hynix shares have climbed roughly 60% this month in a steep rally.<\/p>\n
Pension funds typically manage the weighting of any single stock at around 10% to prevent excessive concentration. The “single-stock 10% rule” under the enforcement decree of the Financial Investment Services and Capital Markets Act is also a factor limiting additional purchases by institutional investors.<\/p>\n
Under these constraints, SK Square is emerging as an alternative investment. SK Square is the largest shareholder of SK hynix, holding roughly a 20% stake, and the share price correlation between the two companies is relatively high. Expectations are mounting that funds that find it difficult to add SK hynix directly could shift to SK Square.<\/p>\n
“The gap between SK hynix’s inclusion weighting and its market capitalization is enhancing SK Square’s appeal as an alternative,” said Kim Hoe-jae, an analyst at Daishin Securities. “As the surge in SK hynix shares continues on upward revisions to earnings forecasts, SK Square’s investment appeal is also rising.”<\/p>\n
Choi Kwan-soon, an analyst at SK Securities, also explained, “Under the 10% single-stock inclusion cap rule, institutional investors are likely to continue buying SK Square as an alternative to SK hynix.”<\/p>\n
Separately from pension funds’ rebalancing moves, brokerages have been raising their target prices for SK hynix to more than 2 million won. Nomura Securities recently lifted its target price to 2.34 million won from 1.93 million won, while Mirae Asset Securities raised its target to 2 million won from 1.66 million won. Other major brokerages have also put out target prices above 2 million won in succession, including Daol Investment & Securities (2.1 million won), Korea Investment & Securities (2.05 million won), and KB Securities, Meritz Securities and SK Securities (2 million won each).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Kospi and Kosdaq both rose on hopes for a resumption of US-Iran peace talks. An employee at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":742,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[797,243,795,799,796,798,241,275,676],"class_list":{"0":"post-741","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sk-square","8":"tag-ai-chip-supercycle","9":"tag-hbm-memory","10":"tag-korea-pension-funds","11":"tag-kospi-institutional-investors","12":"tag-portfolio-rebalancing","13":"tag-single-stock-10-rule","14":"tag-sk","15":"tag-sk-hynix","16":"tag-sk-square"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/741","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=741"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/741\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/742"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=741"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=741"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=741"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}