The number of South Koreans who are 19 and younger that hold shares in Samsung Electronics reached 358,257 teens in December last year, a record high, according to the Korea Securities Depository.

This number accounts for 7% of all shareholders and 0.2% percent of the total shares the tech giant has issued. The shares the teenagers held at the time amounted to 1.1 trillion won ($891 million). The rise in the number of teen accounts in 2021, jumped three-fold from the previous year, is believed to be prompted by a retail rush emboldened by fiscal and monetary stimulus measures the government had rolled out to ride out the coronavirus pandemic.

Meanwhile, KB Securities, the 5th largest brokerage in Korea by assets, reported the number of young clients aged 18 and below increased 328% as of April this year. In the same period, the number of older customers aged 19 and above jumped only 62 percent to 7.9 million. Indicating investment by younger generations may pave the way for future market engagement.

“They [teens and their parents] saw an opportunity in putting money into stocks when the market was rallying on the government’s pandemic support,” a KB Securities official said.

KB Securities added young customers aged 18 and below were more aggressive in their foreign investments than older customers. Foreign stock holdings account for 12% on average for young customers, but 5% for the older customers. Tesla, Apple and Microsoft were the top picks for both younger customers.

Local companies like Samsung Electronics, LG Energy Solution and Kakao were the top investment choices for the both groups, who favored tech giant Samsung Electronics the most.

“Brokerages would soon be competing to attract teen customers, who are not given as many investment products as their older counterparts – the target audience that have earned them the most profits, until now,” a KB Securities official said. 

Source: Choi Si-young (siyoungchoi@heraldcorp.com)