Goldman Sachs analyst Chris Cha said retail net buying in South Korean stocks fell 90% in August from June, dropping from 54.5 trillion won to 5.4 trillion won. According to Sina Finance, Goldman Sachs also said foreign investors and local institutions were net sellers in August, leaving corporate buybacks as the main support for the market.

The bank warned that, at the current pace of buybacks, Samsung and SK Hynix could exhaust their repurchase quotas between late September and mid-October, well before their official November deadlines. Goldman Sachs said investors should prepare for a potential liquidity shock in October.