Korea's growing ETF market sees net assets jump $5.9 billion in Jan

The net assets and trading volume of South Korea's exchange-traded funds (ETFs) this year have seen major growth.

The Korea Exchange on Monday said total net assets of domestic ETFs last month reached an estimated 86.1 trillion won ($68.5 billion), up 7.5 trillion won or 9.6% from December last year.

Among the 671 listed ETFs, Kodex 200, which invests in the Kospi 200, had the largest net asset amount of 5.5 billion won, followed by the synthetic Tiger CD Interest Rate Investment KIS with 4.8 trillion won and synthetic Kodex DEX KOFR Interest Rate Active with 3.1 trillion won.

Samsung Asset Management had the highest market share by an asset management company with 42%. Mirae Asset Global Investments was second with 38.2%, followed by KB Asset Management with 8.2%, Korea Investment Trust Management 4%, Hanwha Asset Management 2.3% and Kiwoom Asset Management 2.2%.

ETF trading was also brisk last month with an average daily trading value of 2.2 trillion won, up 146.8 billion won or 7.1% from the previous month. Individual and foreign net buying was also strong with the former purchasing 498.1 billion won and the latter 97.5 billion won, a significant increase from minus 7.3 billion won for individual investors and 54.1 billion won for institutional investors in December last year.

The rate of return was negative, however, with a monthly yield last month of minus 4.68%. In addition, 130 issues rose and 521 fell, with theme ETFs such as those of secondary batteries, information technology and robots showing strength.

Write to Sang Hoon Sung at uphoon@hankyung.com