South Korea's retail investors bought up a net 9.5 trillion won ($8.52 billion) worth of local shares in the first half of 2018, as institutional investors and foreigners sold off their holdings, market data showed Sunday.

Data by Korea Exchange and Koscom Corp. -- the systems manager of South Korean bourse operator -- revealed that the buying spree was the largest tallied for the six month period since 2000.

The purchase data show small-time investors effectively buying up the net 4.4 trillion won in shares offloaded by institutions and some 4.05 trillion won in stocks sold by foreigners in the January-June period. The total includes both the main Korea Composite Stock Price Index and the secondary Korea Securities Dealers Automated Quotation market.

Broken down, individuals bought 7.2 trillion won in shares more than they sold in shares listed on the benchmark KOSPI while acquiring slightly less than 2.3 trillion won in the tech heavy KOSDAQ exchange.

KRX said retail investors focused on such blue chips as Samsung Electronics, bio-pharmaceutical firm Celltrion Inc. Hyundai E&C, Hyundai Rotem, LG Chem Kakao and Hyundai Elevator.

The top 10 shares bought by small time investors, meanwhile, rose an average 11.65 percent in the first six months of this year, the data showed. (Yonhap)