Long-term foreign capital is coming in... Why you shouldn't sell Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix early / Foreigners take all the rising fruits | Lee Ji-hwan, CEO of Aurora Investment Advisory

Summary

Lee Ji-hwan, CEO of Aurora Investment Advisory, argues the July memory-semiconductor selloff was driven by three now-resolving factors and expects Samsung Electronics and SK hynix to rebound. He sees U.S. equities and AI infrastructure as supported by hyperscaler capex, while Korean equities benefit from a shift in foreign inflows toward long-term funds, supporting a medium-term KOSPI recovery into year-end. He advises holding semiconductor leaders rather than rotating into KOSDAQ and urges selective treatment of expensive Korean defense and power-equipment sectors.

• U.S. weak retail and sentiment data are normalization, not recession; U.S. indices remain in an uptrend.
• Inflation worries from oil and CPI/PPI have eased enough to allow stock-specific momentum.
• July memory selloff drivers such as peak-cycle fears, China threat, and weak shareholder returns are resolving, supporting Samsung Electronics and SK hynix.
• The AI training-to-inference shift supports CPU and non-memory names like AMD and Intel.
• Workday's buyout indicates AI software value remains; Big Tech bond issuance is not yet a bubble warning.
• Nvidia's circular financing is a potential recurring market risk to monitor.
• Foreign buying shifted toward long-term pension-style funds, supporting KOSPI medium-term upside to year-end.
• Korean defense and power equipment look expensive versus U.S. peers, and semiconductor leaders should be held over a KOSDAQ rotation.