KOSDAQ Rebounds... Active ETF Returns Show Wide Variations

Biotech-led ETFs Dominate Until the 4th
DS Takes the Lead with 4% Gain on the 5th as Semiconductors Rally

KOSDAQ has risen for four consecutive trading days, providing momentum for KOSDAQ active exchange-traded funds (ETFs), which have been competitively launched this year. As active management allows portfolio selections to vary greatly depending on the portfolio manager's judgment, the returns among these products have shown significant divergence.

According to the Korea Exchange on August 6, KOSDAQ closed at 799.59 on the previous day, up 2.42%. The KOSDAQ active ETF with the best return was DS KOSDAQ Active (4.54%). Launched on July 14, this product is DS Asset Management's first ETF. At the time of its launch, DS Asset Management announced ambitions to select stocks based on changes in company fundamentals rather than simply following market capitalization weights.

As of the previous day, looking at the portfolio of DS KOSDAQ Active, the largest allocation was to TES (9.14%), followed by PSK Holdings (6.68%), PSK (6.27%), VM (5.93%), Simmtech (5.86%), and Leeno Industrial (5.00%). The sharp rise seems to be due to the higher allocation to the semiconductor-related IT sector, at 82.42%, driven by the rebound in semiconductor stocks such as Samsung Electronics and SK hynix. The remaining allocation was 15.78% to materials and only 0.70% to healthcare.

In contrast, on August 4, when sector rotation moved towards biotech and related segments, DS KOSDAQ Active was the weakest performer. Unicorn K-Bio Active, focusing solely on healthcare, posted the best return at 12.61%, followed by ACE K-Bio KOSDAQ Active at 10.90% and TIGER Tech Transfer Bio Active at 10.81%. From July 31—when the KOSDAQ rally began—to August 5, these products climbed by 16–21%. However, on days when semiconductor stocks led the rally, the gains for these were limited to around 0%.

Besides these, differences in industry and market capitalization allocations among KOSDAQ active ETFs have resulted in varied returns. TIGER KOSDAQ Active, which ranked second in gains the previous day (4.14%), had allocations of 58.32% in IT, 14.39% in healthcare, 9.04% in industrials, and 7.02% in materials, reflecting a relatively diversified sector composition. It also held a lower proportion of large-cap stocks at 41.36%. Its top holdings included Jeju Semiconductor (6.23%), TSE (4.69%), and Pharmaresearch (4.27%).

TIME KOSDAQ Active, by TIMEfolio Asset Management—known as a leading active manager—rose by 3.48%. Although it held 59.15% in IT, its next largest allocations were industrials (18.50%) and healthcare (18.44%). It also had a higher large-cap allocation at 66.05% compared to the TIGER product. The largest holding was GNCenergy (5.53%), followed by Jusung Engineering (4.82%) and TES (4.54%).

Launched alongside TIME as one of the first KOSDAQ active ETFs and having garnered attention, KoAct KOSDAQ Active rose by 3.39%. Like TIME, it held 61.42% in IT. However, after healthcare (19.77%), it was more heavily weighted toward materials (6.64%) than industrials (5.94%). Its top holdings included TES (6.43%), Leeno Industrial (6.20%), and Simmtech (5.00%).

Securities industry experts believe the positive sentiment in the KOSDAQ market is linked to the implementation of regulations on single-stock leveraged products. Jae Won Lee, researcher at Yuanta Securities, said, "The main factor in KOSDAQ's performance is the decrease in trading volume due to stricter regulations on single-stock leveraged products. The withdrawal of funds previously used for repeated trading has eased the concentration in large semiconductor stocks. The resulting gap is being filled by rotational investment in AI infrastructure-related value chains, like electric power equipment, and in small- and mid-cap stocks. This confirms the path to supply-demand normalization that has been advocated alongside regulatory tightening."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.