PSY's grandmother causing stock nosedive

The stocks of DI has been falling for over the past three days, closing at 8,800 won ($8) Thursday afternoon.

DI, the semiconductor equipment maker whose major shareholder is Park Won-ho, father of the popular rapper Psy, shares of which have been skyrocketing recently due to the success of Pys's song "Gangnam Style".

It so happens that timing of a turnaround in the value of DI's stocks coincided with the disposal of shares by PSY's grandmother. The shares rose to a peak of 13,100 won ($12)Oct. 15.

She sold 5,378 of the 1.2 million-plus shares she held, picking up about 70 million won ($63,000) Oct. 15.

According to Choi Hee-moon, who is in charge of shareholding notices at the Korea Exchange, the sales of the shares by PSY's grandmother was the first in six months. "Aside from the sales of 10,000 shares in May, none of the major shareholders transacted their holdings in recently".

It is difficult to estimate the losses of general shareholders but considering the fact that 780,000 shares were traded on Oct. 15, the sales of Pys's grandmpothers stocks could not have had much of an effect.

However, the suspicion in the market is that the Oct. 15 is merely the beginning of the disposal of much larger stockholding in DI.

The total value of DI shares reached 408 billion won ($370 million) but slipped to $251.6 billion won ($230 million) Thursday.

Since private shareholders account for just over 50 percent, the losses are estimated at around 78.2 billion won ($71 million).

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