Samsung Electronics shares hit another new low of 40,000 won level

Samsung Electronics' stock price has finally crashed to the “40,000 won range.” Since July, the stock has fallen 44 percent. Foreigners have been selling off 16 trillion won worth of shares in more than two months since September.

On the securities market, Samsung Electronics shares closed at 49,900 won on November 14, down 700 won (-1.38 percent) from the previous day. This is another new 52-week low. This is the lowest price in four years and five months since June 15, 2020 (49,900 won). The market capitalization also fell below 300 trillion won for the first time in four years and five months at 297.822 trillion won.

Following Samsung's fall, the KOSPI also failed to regain the 2420 mark, closing at 2418.86, up 1.78 points, or 0.07 percent, from the previous day.

It was foreigners who dragged down Samsung Electronics' stock price. Foreigners were net sellers of 475.8 billion won on the day, marking the 12th consecutive trading day. The stock even rebounded to 51,800 won, up 2.37 percent intraday, as individuals bought 37.24 billion won net, but it eventually fell to the 40,000 won range before the close as foreigners continued to sell.

Samsung Electronics' stock price has been plummeting since July. It peaked at 88,800 won on July 11, with a market capitalization of 530 trillion won, but within four months, 230 trillion won in market capitalization evaporated in four months. The stock price has fallen 43.8 percent from its peak, and the tech giant's price-to-book ratio (PBR) has dropped to 0.88 times.

The decline in Samsung Electronics' stock price is largely due to the fact that demand for semiconductors has not revived as much as expected and the industry has been sluggish. The concerns that the re-election of U.S. President Donald Trump will restrict semiconductor exports to China and reduce support for semiconductors also play a major factor.

SK hynix also closed down 5.41 percent on the day on these concerns.

Nevertheless, Samsung Electronics' share price has been particularly depressed because concerns about its competitiveness have not been resolved.

“The stock price differentiation from competitors is likely driven by market participants' doubts about the high-bandwidth memory (HBM) technology gap, which has not been narrowed, and general-purpose DRAM products, which are being overtaken by China,” said Park Yoo-ak, a researcher at Kiwoom Securities.

Samsung is still unable to deliver its HBMs to Nvidia, and China's ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT) is on the heels of Samsung in the D-RAM market.

In fact, foreigners have been net selling of Samsung Electronics on all but three trading days since September, when these concerns began to surface. The net selling amount during this period was about 16 trillion won, more than the total net selling amount of the KOSPI of about 13 trillion won.

Securities firms that had set Samsung Electronics target price at up to “100,000 won” in the first half of the year have been lowering their expectations one after another. On the same day, Kiwoom Securities lowered its price target to 75,000 won from 90,000 won, and Mirae Asset Securities cut its price target to 84,000 won from 110,000 won.

“Based on the price, it seems to be a bottom,” said Kim Sang-hoon, head of the research center at KB Securities. “Foreigners are not yet positive about Samsung Electronics, so their views should change.”

※This article has undergone review by a professional translator after being translated by an AI translation tool.