Seoul, Aug 25 (IANS): The number of small shareholders in global tech giant Samsung Electronics nearly tripled this year amid massive stock investment by local retail investors, data showed on Tuesday.

Some 1.45 million investors held a stake of less than 1 per cent in the top-cap company as of the end of June, 2.6 times the tally six months earlier, according to the data from Samsung.

That means the number of small investors in Samsung Electronics increased by as much as some 886,000 in the first half of the year.

Market watchers said a considerable number of local retail investors had bought into Samsung Electronics this year, given foreigners' continued selling of their most coveted stock in the country, reports Yonhap news agency.

Overseas investors sold a net 6.7 trillion won ($5.64 billion) worth of Samsung shares in the January-June period, with local institutions' net selling reaching about 2 trillion won.

In contrast, domestic retail investors bought a net 8.4 trillion won worth of Samsung shares during the six-month period, making the company their most-bought stock on the local bourse.

The surge in the number of small investors is seen as meaning their greater clout in Samsung, the world's leading smartphone and memory chipmaker.

Samsung's largest shareholder held an estimated 21.2 per cent stake, with foreign investors owning 55 per cent.