[Breaking News] "Bought Again Even After 60% Drop"... Seohakgami Invests 46 Billion Won in 'Risky Pooling' [Global Money Flow by Maeng Jin-gyu]

U.S. small and mid-sized tech stocks, including those related to quantum computing, which are top picks for "Sewol Gambi," are experiencing sharp declines. This is due to increased volatility in artificial intelligence (AI) technology stocks, causing a contraction in investor sentiment. Despite the drop in stock prices, Sewol Gambi continues to steadily make additional purchases.

According to the New York Stock Exchange on the 13th, IonQ, a leading stock in quantum computing, fell 33.08% this year. Quantum computing companies Rigetti Computing and D-Wave Quantum also dropped 36.48% and 33.1%, respectively, during the same period. Other stocks popular among retail investors, such as Newscale Power (-14.22%) related to small modular reactors (SMR) and Circle (-32.16%) related to stablecoins, also declined significantly. Compared to the Nasdaq's drop of 2.75% during the same period, the decline was much steeper.

Despite the sharp drop in stock prices, retail investors continue to make additional purchases. According to Korea Depository Services, domestic investors have net bought 322.8 million U.S. dollars (about 46.6 billion won) worth of IonQ this year. During the same period, large amounts of money also flowed into Newscale Power (165.73 million U.S. dollars) and Circle (68.09 million U.S. dollars). In the case of IonQ, the share held by Koreans accounts for about 25% of the total market capitalization. With the stock price dropping by 60% compared to its peak in October last year, it is estimated that retail investors have suffered significant losses.

The stock market analyzed that the decline began with small-cap stocks, which had a heavy valuation (price level relative to earnings) burden, as the AI rally came to a halt. As a crisis in the software industry emerged due to the advancement of AI, AI-related stocks centered on software fell sharply, causing investor sentiment to shift toward energy utilities and essential consumer goods. In this context, companies such as IonQ and Newscale Power, which had surged based solely on evaluations of their high technological capabilities, are drawing attention for failing to escape prolonged periods of losses.

Experts advised to diversify portfolios into traditional value stocks, as they expect corrections in tech stocks to continue for some time. Capital Economics predicted that the S&P 500 index could rise to the 8,000 level this year and then fall back to the 7,000 level. They expected valuation pressures and the possibility of a U.S. economic slowdown to trigger the index correction.

UBS said, "Investors should reconsider their allocation to U.S. technology stocks and diversify their portfolios into financials, healthcare, and utility sectors," and downgraded its investment outlook for the entire U.S. technology sector to neutral.

Maeng Jin-gyu, reporter maeng@hankyung.com