Foreign investors net purchased shares of SillaJen and Samsung BioLogics, and net sold Celltrion and Celltrion Healthcare, in March, data showed Tuesday.
Among the secondary KOSDAQ shares, SillaJen ranked first in the list of healthcare-related shares net purchased by foreign investors this month. The drugmaker is expected to announce clinical trials results of oncolytic virus treatment Pexa-Vec in patients with kidney cancer at the International Oncolytic Virus Conference 2018 in the U.K. in April. Foreigners net bought 799.5 billion won ($743.5 million) worth of SillaJen shares.
On the main bourse KOSPI, Samsung BioLogics topped the list of biotech and pharmaceutical shares net bought by foreigners. The biosimilar manufacturer recently won a 1.8 billion-won order from a U.S. pharmaceutical firm, whose name was not disclosed.
Foreign investors net purchased more than 100 million won shares of Samsung BioLogics, which ranked fifth among KOSPI shares net-purchased by foreigners.
Nature Cell, which failed to win conditional approval for cell therapy Jointstem, ranked second with 41 million won net purchasing by foreigners. Medipost trailed in the third with 31 million won net buying. Medipost is expected to increase exports of Cartistem, a stem cell treatment for knee cartilage defects.
Dentium, expected to benefit from broader insurance coverage of implant, came in the fourth with 29 million won net buying, followed by ViroMed with 24 million won net purchasing. ViroMed is conducting clinical trials on VM202 pipelines that target diabetic neuropathy and ischemic chronic foot ulcers. Hugel, which plans to sell its fillers and botulinum toxin products overseas, ranked sixth with 19 million won.
On the other hand, Celltrion and Celltrion Healthcare suffered the largest net selling of foreigners among the total shares on KOSPI and KOSDAQ in March.
Celltrion ranked first in the list of KOSPI and KOSDAQ shares net dumped by foreign investors this month, with net selling of 1.33 billion won. Next came Celltrion Healthcare, with 300 million won net selling.
Foreigners also net sold 10 million won shares of Genexine, which unveiled superior clinical outcome of sustained growth hormone GX-H9, in comparison to Genotropin, at the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists’ annual meeting on Sunday.
On the KOSPI market, foreign investors net sold 21 million won shares of Hanmi Pharmaceutical, a large volume among biotech and pharmaceutical firms.