SK Hynix leverage products dominate rankings; space tech, battery ETFs lag

Employees at Hana Bank's headquarters dealing room in Jung-gu, Seoul, celebrate the Kospi breaking the 9,000 mark on Thursday. The index closed at 9,063.84, up 199.60 points, or 2.25 percent, that day. [Yonhap]
Employees at Hana Bank's headquarters dealing room in Jung-gu, Seoul, celebrate the Kospi breaking the 9,000 mark on Thursday. The index closed at 9,063.84, up 199.60 points, or 2.25 percent, that day. [Yonhap]

Semiconductor funds have come to dominate the domestic exchange-traded fund landscape, mirroring the broader stock market rally led by the country's two top chipmakers. SK Hynix single-stock leverage products in particular swept all seven of the top spots among ETFs listed in South Korea.

According to Korea Exchange, the top-performing ETF this month — covering June 1 through Friday — was the TIGER SK Hynix Single Stock Leverage, with a return of 31.22 percent.

It was followed closely by the KODEX SK Hynix Single Stock Leverage (31.13 percent), ACE SK Hynix Single Stock Leverage (29.71 percent), SOL SK Hynix Single Stock Leverage (29.67 percent), RISE SK Hynix Single Stock Leverage (28.25 percent) and KIWOOM SK Hynix Futures Single Stock Leverage (27.06 percent).

All seven SK Hynix single-stock leverage ETFs, which listed on May 27, made it into the top rankings this month. Beyond those seven, every fund through 14th place was also semiconductor-related.

The group included several overseas semiconductor ETFs: PLUS Global HBM Semiconductor (11th, 19.97 percent), TIGER Japan Semiconductor FACTSET (12th, 19.19 percent), TIGER US Philadelphia Semiconductor Leverage Synthetic (13th, 19.50 percent) and KODEX China AI Semiconductor Top 10 (16th, 18.11 percent). Funds ranked 16th through 21st were also all semiconductor-related.

The only non-semiconductor product in the top 15 was KODEX 200 Long Kosdaq 150 Short Futures, which ranked 15th with a return of 18.18 percent.

Non-semiconductor ETFs, including space technology and secondary battery funds, meanwhile languished near the bottom of the performance table.

TIGER US Space Tech posted a loss of 39.18 percent for the month, the second-largest decline after SOL SK Hynix Futures Single Stock Inverse 2X, which fell 47.88 percent.

SOL US Aerospace Top 10 (sixth-worst, down 30.97 percent) and KODEX US Aerospace (ninth-worst, down 24.38 percent) also recorded steep losses.

Other non-semiconductor ETFs that finished in negative territory included TIGER Secondary Battery Top 10 Leverage (second-worst, down 33.33 percent), KODEX Secondary Battery Industry Leverage (fifth-worst, down 31.91 percent), TIGER LG Group Plus (13th-worst, down 23.15 percent), 1Q K Sovereign AI (23rd-worst, down 19.48 percent) and RISE Hyundai Motor Fixed Physical AI (25th-worst, down 19.04 percent).


anju1015@heraldcorp.com