[Edaily Reporter KIM YOON-JEONG ] While the KOSPI index has remained within a narrow trading range over the past month, retail investors have reportedly turned their attention to exchange-traded funds (ETFs) that track major U.S. indices.

According to Koscom’s ETF CHECK on the 1st, the ETF with the highest net purchases by retail investors over the past month was Mirae Asset Management’s “TIGER U.S. S&P 500.” Retail investors made net purchases of this product totaling 500 billion won.
In second place was Samsung Asset Management’s “KODEX U.S. S&P 500,” with retail investors making net purchases totaling 270.3 billion won. Third place also went to Samsung Asset Management’s “KODEX U.S. Nasdaq 100,” with net purchases of 269.4 billion won. In addition, the “TIGER Dividend Covered Call Active” and “KODEX 200 Covered Call Active” took fourth and fifth place, respectively. This means that three of the top five ETFs by retail net purchases are products tracking major U.S. indices.
The situation was different last June, when the KOSPI surpassed the 9,000 mark and hit a record high. On June 19, the KOSPI rose to 9,385.59 during intraday trading, setting an all-time high, and on the following trading day, June 22, it closed at 9,114.55—its highest closing price on record.
At the time when the domestic stock market was heading toward its peak, ETFs related to the domestic market dominated the list of top ETFs by net purchases among retail investors. The ETFs that individual investors net purchased the most in June were leveraged products focused on a single semiconductor stock. First place went to the “KODEX SK Hynix Single-Stock Leverage” ETF, with net purchases of 2.3 trillion won; second place went to the “KODEX Samsung Electronics Single-Stock Leverage” ETF (2.1 trillion won); third was the “TIGER SK Hynix Single-Stock Leverage” (1.5 trillion won), fourth was the “TIGER Samsung Electronics Single-Stock Leverage” (1.2 trillion won), and fifth was the “SOL AI Semiconductor TOP Plus” (1 trillion won).
The “SOL AI Semiconductor TOP Plus,” which took fifth place, is also an ETF that focuses heavily on domestic semiconductor stocks. As of today, its major holdings include Samsung Electronics (24.52%), SK Hynix (21.98%), Samsung Electro-Mechanics (15.49%), and SK Square (13.61%). The “TIGER U.S. S&P 500” (685.5 billion won), a fund tracking a U.S. index, ranked seventh.
This shift in capital is interpreted as being linked to the divergent trends in domestic and international stock markets. The KOSPI, which peaked in late June, plummeted in July and has since been fluctuating between the 6,000 and 7,000 levels since August. Even over the past month, while it briefly surpassed the 7,100 mark during intraday trading, it failed to sustain the upward momentum and has been trading within a range between the high 6,000s and low 7,000s. On this day, the KOSPI closed at 6,971.35.
In contrast, while the KOSPI struggled to recover its previous high, major U.S. indices have repeatedly set new all-time highs. The U.S. S&P 500 index hit an all-time high of 7,798.99 on August 13, and the Nasdaq Composite index also set a new record of 27,244.28 on the 22nd of last month.
A preference for overseas investments is also evident across the board in equity-based products, including ETFs. Yoon Jae-hong, an analyst at Mirae Asset Securities, noted, “Through the middle to late part of last month, U.S. large-cap stocks and U.S. large-cap growth stocks saw net inflows of 1.2 trillion won and 1.1 trillion won, respectively, while Korean large-cap stocks experienced net outflows of 1.6 trillion won.”