Korea Fell 12.5% in Two Months. Six Small Caps Drew Foreign and Domestic Buyers at Once. Only Two Pass Our Accumulation Test.

Fri, 30 Oct 2026 11:25:00 +0900

From August 28 to October 29, the KOSPI fell 12.5% and the KOSDAQ fell 10.2%. In that market we looked for Korean small caps that two different kinds of money were buying at the same time: foreign investors and domestic institutions other than brokers trading their own books. We screened 712 stocks with a market value under 300 billion won and enough daily turnover to trade. Six passed every test.

A flow screen adds up money. It does not ask how the money arrived. So we asked. In three of the six, a single day accounts for more than one buyer group’s entire two-month total. Take that day out, and that group was a net seller. In a fourth, one US fund filed three stake-increase reports during the period.

Our judgment: by our accumulation test, two of the six pass. The test asks whether domestic institutions bought across many days, with no single day supplying more than a third of their total. At GC Genome, domestic funds bought 7.3% of the company’s market value on 24 of 40 trading days, and no single day supplied more than a fifth of it. Its foreign buying, however, rests on one day, and foreigners have been selling for two weeks. At Daewon Media, the largest domestic day was 31% of the total, and foreign buying was spread too, but most of the domestic money is private funds and the stock trades thinly. Flitto has the best earnings of the six, but its domestic buying came on one day. The variable that matters most for GC Genome is whether domestic investment trusts keep buying while foreigners sell. A financial investor that sold shares in 2025 is a further possible source of supply.

This article is dated October 30, 2026. These are screening results, not recommendations. Flow amounts are net buying in won from Kiwoom Securities investor data, recalculated over all 40 trading days. Prices are official KRX closes for October 29. Moves during the October 30 session are provisional.

What to take away

Double buying was rare in this market. Among 712 liquid small caps, our first pass found 79 where both foreigners and domestic institutions were net buyers over the two months. Only six also had each group buying at least 0.3% of market value and relative strength of 80 or more.
GC Genome has the strongest domestic accumulation. Investment trusts bought 7.65 billion won and private funds 6.90 billion won. The largest single day was 20% of the domestic total. Foreign net buying of 2.30 billion won came from one day, October 6 (+4.08 billion won). In the last ten trading days, foreigners sold 5.20 billion won while domestic funds bought 8.51 billion won.
Daewon Media has both groups buying without one day dominating. Foreigners bought on 16 days and domestic institutions on 17, and the largest days were 50% and 31% of the totals. But 78% of the domestic money is private funds, and average daily turnover is only 0.82 billion won.
Flitto has the earnings. Foreigners bought on 28 of 40 days. Its third-quarter operating profit was about 9.0 billion won, a record quarter. Domestic institutions bought mainly on results day, and the stock is still less than half its 52-week high.
Gisoft’s foreign buying has one identifiable buyer. Miri Capital Management, a Boston investment adviser, reported its stake rising from 13.80% to 15.79% as of October 21.
HT Robotics and RaonSecure are theme momentum. Each has the strongest price action of the group, but each one’s foreign buying arrived mostly on a single day.

The six names

Stock	Market value	40-day return	Foreigners	Domestic institutions ex. brokers	Pensions, trusts, insurers	Buying days (foreign / domestic)	Largest day (foreign / domestic)
GC Genome	202.9bn	+43.7%	+2.30bn (1.1%)	+14.78bn (7.3%)	+7.72bn (3.8%)	15 / 24	177% / 20%
Daewon Media	98.7bn	+33.1%	+1.18bn (1.2%)	+2.49bn (2.5%)	+0.56bn (0.6%)	16 / 17	50% / 31%
Flitto	155.2bn	+3.2%	+5.27bn (3.4%)	+0.61bn (0.4%)	+0.64bn (0.4%)	28 / 8	33% / 227%
Gisoft	176.7bn	+37.5%	+9.18bn (5.2%)	+1.25bn (0.7%)	-0.07bn (0.0%)	25 / 14	36% / 50%
HT Robotics	236.8bn	+99.6%	+8.75bn (3.7%)	+3.56bn (1.5%)	+3.03bn (1.3%)	20 / 10	79% / 48%
RaonSecure	184.9bn	+75.6%	+1.74bn (0.9%)	+0.68bn (0.4%)	+0.57bn (0.3%)	17 / 17	312% / 76%

Amounts are in won, from August 31 to October 29, 2026. Percentages in brackets are shares of the October 29 market value. “Domestic institutions ex. brokers” is total institutional net buying minus brokers’ proprietary trading. It includes pensions, investment trusts, private funds, insurers, banks and other financial firms. “Largest day” is the biggest single day as a share of the 40-day net total; above 100% means the group was a net seller without that day.

GC Genome: domestic funds have been buying ahead of the US data

GC Genome is the genetic-testing company of Korea’s GC (Green Cross) group. It sells prenatal tests, rare-disease tests, health-screening tests and ai-CANCERCH, a multi-cancer screening test that applies AI to low-depth whole-genome sequencing. It is also developing a blood test for pancreatic cancer for the US market.

This year’s profit does not explain the price. First-half 2026 revenue was 15.72 billion won, up about 8%, and operating profit was about 0.57 billion won, more than double a year earlier. The company says it has now posted five consecutive profitable quarters. GC, Aug 14 For full-year 2026, the analyst consensus shown on Naver Finance is 37.6 billion won of revenue and 2.7 billion won of operating profit. At about 203 billion won of market value, the stock trades at about 75 times that profit. The consensus also needs second-half operating profit about 3.7 times the first half. The company reported 42.1 billion won of cash at the end of June, so cash covers about a fifth of the market value.

The US program is the likeliest explanation for the multiple, in our reading. In its August release, GC Genome said it is collecting samples from US residents to validate the pancreatic test and plans to apply to the FDA for Breakthrough Device designation. The program is designed to speed up development and review. It is not a marketing authorization. FDA We found no performance data from the study in the company’s filings or press releases. Two hurdles sit beyond the data. The US Preventive Services Task Force recommends against pancreatic cancer screening in adults without symptoms (grade D), which may make insurance coverage harder. USPSTF And competitors already operate in the US. ClearNote Health reported 76.8% sensitivity for stage I–II pancreatic cancer in an independent cohort of 1,445 people for its Avantect test, which has not been FDA cleared. ClearNote, May 22

The supply on the other side is real. Foreigners turned sellers in the last ten trading days. A financial investor, Genovation No. 1, sold 989,094 shares on the market from December 9 to 15, 2025, and still held 1,855,350 shares, about 8%, after that sale. Dailypharm, Dec 16, 2025 We have not confirmed its current holding. On October 29 the stock closed at 8,580 won, below its 20-day average of 9,340 won and 16% under its 40-day high of 10,250 won. It traded about 7% higher at 11:18 a.m. on October 30 (provisional).

What would change our view: if investment-trust buying stops for a week or more while foreigners keep selling, we would treat the accumulation reading as weakened. The next hard data points are the third-quarter report, due by November 16, against a quarterly consensus of about 1.0 billion won of operating profit, and any public release of the US study results.

Daewon Media: both groups, thin trading

Foreigners bought 1.18 billion won and domestic institutions 2.49 billion won, and both accelerated in the last ten days (+0.95 billion and +2.10 billion won). Korean press tied the October rally to the box-office success of the Chiikawa animated film and shortages of its character goods. Hankyung, Oct 15 The weaknesses are depth and buyer type. Private funds supplied 1.94 billion won of the 2.49 billion won, pensions, trusts and insurers only 0.56 billion won, and the stock trades about 0.82 billion won a day. The October 29 close of 7,850 won was below the 20-day average.

Flitto: the earnings are real, the domestic buying is one day

Flitto, an AI translation and language-data company, reported third-quarter revenue of about 17.8 billion won and operating profit of about 9.0 billion won, a 50.4% margin and a record quarter. Its operating profit for the first nine months, about 10.3 billion won, already exceeds all of 2025 (about 6.2 billion won). Byline Network, Oct 20 Foreigners bought on 28 of 40 days, the most even pattern in the group. Domestic money bought 1.38 billion won on results day and was a net seller on the other days. The stock gained only 3.2% over the period and sits below half of its 52-week high. The question is whether domestic institutions follow the foreign buyers now that the earnings are public.

Gisoft: one fund is not a trend

Foreigners bought 9.18 billion won, equal to 5.2% of market value. One identifiable buyer stands out. Miri Capital Management LLC, an investment adviser in Boston, filed large-shareholding reports in August, September and October. In the latest, its stake rose from 13.80% to 15.79% as of October 21, for general investment purposes. DART, Oct 26 Pensions, trusts and insurers were small net sellers. One fund building a stake can be a strong signal about value, but its persistence depends on that fund’s limits and goals.

HT Robotics and RaonSecure: one-day foreign spikes

HT Robotics rose 99.6% and RaonSecure 75.6% over the two months, the best price action of the six. HT Robotics, formerly Seah Mechanics, renamed itself on August 19 and declared a shift to robotics; its largest shareholder is HTI&T. The Bell, Aug 19 79% of its foreign buying came on October 21, and domestic money sold in the last ten days. RaonSecure’s foreign total exists only because of October 15; without that day, foreigners were net sellers. Both pass the screen, but neither shows steady accumulation.

Near misses

Genesem and Rayence had strong price action and domestic buying, but foreign buying fell short of the 0.3% threshold. KH Vatec had foreign buying but not enough domestic money, although domestic buying picked up in the last ten days. Dongbu Construction drew 1.43 billion won from pension funds but missed on relative strength.

How we screened

Step	Rule	Stocks left
Universe	Korean common stocks with market value at or under 300 billion won	1,801
Liquidity	40-day average turnover of at least 0.3 billion won	741
Clean prices	Excluded stocks with a one-day move above 30% in 120 days (possible splits or reverse splits)	712
First pass	Relative strength of 70 or more and positive foreign buying in our database	48
Final	Foreigners and domestic institutions each at least 0.3% of market value; relative strength of 80 or more	6

Relative strength is a percentile against 2,525 common stocks, built from 40-, 20- and 120-day returns. We recalculated the 48 first-pass names with Kiwoom data for all 40 days because our database lacked detailed institutional data on some days. A stock that our database showed with negative foreign buying did not reach the recalculation, so a borderline name may be missing.

Which signal do you trust more in a falling market: foreigners buying, or domestic funds buying a little every day? Tell us in the comments, and name a Korean small cap you think this screen missed.

Research and information only; not investment advice. These are screening results, not trade instructions or personalized portfolio decisions. Flow data are from a securities data provider and can be revised. Figures are date-bound. AI tools assisted research and editing.

Daewon Media on Korea Invest Insights