[E-Daily Reporter kyoungeun kim ] With a series of cash dividends and share buybacks, “shareholder returns” has emerged as the key theme shaping the domestic stock market in the second half of this year.

According to the Financial Services Commission on the 27th, the total value of treasury stock cancellations by domestic listed companies from January to May this year reached 43.1 trillion won, a 101.4% increase compared to the end of last year (21.4 trillion won). Additionally, the total cash dividends paid by KOSPI-listed companies with a December fiscal year-end reached 35.1 trillion won, a 15.5% increase year-over-year and a record high.
Regulations have been tightened under the revised Commercial Act, which took effect in March of this year, requiring companies to retire treasury shares acquired under the Act within one year and to disclose the status of their disposal and retirement. Additionally, the market has expanded significantly, as the market capitalization share of companies disclosing “value-up” plans reached 85.5% of the total market as of the end of June.
Adding to this trend, SK hynix(000660)announced a 40 trillion won share buyback and cancellation plan, while SamsungElectronics(005930)approved a 2026 shareholder return plan worth 90 trillion to 110 trillion won on the 21st. If this trend led by large-cap stocks continues, some analysts predict that the total scale of shareholder returns in the domestic stock market this year could swell to the 200 trillion won range.
While high-dividend stocks in the past were primarily viewed as a means of distributing cash flow, there is now a trend toward reevaluating stocks that demonstrate both earnings growth and large-scale shareholder returns. Kim Dong-won, Head of Research at KB Securities, described SamsungElectronics as an “undervalued stock that combines growth and dividends,” predicting that “as operating profit rises to 381 trillion won this year, the stock price—currently at a price-to-earnings ratio (PER) of 4—will enter a phase of valuation normalization.”
However, in this announcement, SamsungElectronics postponed the allocation of 60 trillion to 80 trillion won in remaining funds for dividends and share cancellations until January of next year and designated a 15 trillion won share buyback program for employee compensation—unrelated to share cancellations. Consequently, the stock price plummeted 8.70% the day after the announcement due to disappointment that the “share cancellation card”—which would have immediately reduced the number of outstanding shares—was missing. Since then, as expectations have revived regarding supply and demand for the remaining portion of the reported share buyback volume—which has not yet been absorbed by the market—the stock price has shown signs of recovery, partially reversing its earlier decline.

In fact, a review of the reported details on the acquisition and disposal of treasury stock reveals that a significant portion of the volume has yet to be executed. Of the acquisition volume reported by SamsungElectronics on the 21st, only 1.4955 trillion won (a 10.88% execution rate) had been purchased as of the date of this disclosure, leaving a remaining volume estimated to be in the 12 trillion won range, based on recent stock prices.
SK hynix has also executed only 5.4952 trillion won (13.5% of the reported volume), leaving an estimated volume of around 35 trillion won yet to be executed, creating a structure where major buyers will remain in the market throughout the second half of the year.
This momentum is also spreading to affiliated companies that hold stakes in Samsung Electronics. Jeon Bae-seung, an analyst at LS SECURITIES, stated, “It is estimated that Samsung Life Insurance will see a 1.66 trillion won increase in net profit in the third quarter alone as a result of SamsungElectronics’ announcement,” and raised the target price from 380,000 won to 420,000 won.
Market experts assess that the market is now shifting its focus from the “scale” of the buyback itself to the proportion that will actually result in share cancellations and the sustainability of the policy.