Korean retail investors were active purchasers of ETFs listed in the US in July, according to ETF research firm ETFGI.
27 of the top fifty overseas securities purchased by Korean retail investors were ETFs listed in the US and Japan. According to data, the number of ETFs on the list increased by 1 from 26 in June, 4 from 23 in May 2024, and it is up by 2 from April 2024.
Korea is a big fish in a small pond
16 out of 27 ETFs on the top 50 list provide leverage or inverse exposure, and the largest purchase was US$3.05 billion of the Direxion Daily Semiconductors Bull 3X SHS ETF listed in the US.
The ETFs industry in Korea has 1,265 products with assets of $126.37 billion, from 36 providers listed on the Korea Exchange at the end of July 2024. According to data from ETFGI, 26.0% of the local products provide leverage or inverse exposure which account for 9.8% of the assets in the ETFs industry in Korea.
