Foreign ownership of Samsung SDS Co., the key IT service unit of Samsung Group, has sharply grown after its listing on the Seoul bourse earlier this month, the bourse operator said Wednesday.
  

Market watchers said foreign holdings of the IT service company are expected to further rise as global index provider MSCI added it to the emerging market index earlier in the day.
   
Foreigners held 2.94 percent, or 2.27 million shares, of Samsung SDS as of Tuesday, a sharp rise from 0.95 percent on Nov. 14, when it began trading in the KOSPI market, the Korea Exchange
(KRX) said. 
   
Offshore investors bought a net 1.29 trillion won (US$1.16 billion) of Samsung SDS shares last week, driving its stock price up 30.6 percent from the first day's closing price, the KRX said. 
   
The foreign-led buying spree helped Samsung SDS become the nation's fourth-largest company by market capitalization with 33.1 trillion won, just behind SK hynix, the world's second-largest chipmaker. 
   
Shares of Samsung SDS plunged 7 percent Tuesday morning after local media reported that Lee Jay-yong, Samsung Group's expected heir, may sell some of his shares in the company after the lock-up period ends in May 2015. But it rebounded later in the day to finish at 428,000 won, up 5.94 percent from Monday, on expectations for rising foreign investment after the MSCI index inclusion. 
   
Market watchers say joining MSCI's emerging market index will further boost fund inflows via passive funds, such as exchange-traded funds (ETF), index funds that track a specific benchmark.
  

"Considering ETF, sectors and the weight of the benchmark Korea MSCI index, this update would bring at least 240 billion won of foreign funds to the Korean equity market," Kim Young-sung, a researcher at KDB Daewoo Securities, said. "I expect 217.9 billion won will flow into Samsung SDS." 
  
In the quarterly index review released Nov. 6, the U.S.-based provider of investment research and indices also added Daum Kakao Corp., CJ Korea Express Corp. and KEPCO Plant Service & Engineer Co., while deleting Samsung Techwin Co., the defense arm of Samsung Group, to raise the total number of constituents to 106.
   
Daum Kakao Corp., the merged entity of South Korea's popular web portal Daum Communications Co. and mobile messaging app operator Kakao Corp., was listed on the tech-heavy KOSDAQ on Oct. 14.
   
CJ Korea Express is CJ Group's logistics unit and KEPCO Plant Service is the state-power provider's construction and engineering unit, which are both listed on the main bourse. Samsung Techwin is one of four Samsung affiliates to be sold to Hanwha Group.
   
Although MSCI had released the quarterly review a week before Samsung SDS' listing, its immediate entry into the emerging market index was made in consideration of its heavy market weight in the Korean stock market. (Yonhap)