NH-Amundi Asset Management's 'HANARO Fn K-Semiconductor ETF' Tops Year-to-Date Returns

An exchange-traded fund (ETF) that focuses on Korea’s leading semiconductor stocks and major materials, components, and equipment (known as “SoBuJang”) companies has delivered an outstanding performance of over 180% since the beginning of this year. Excluding leveraged products, it ranks first in returns among domestic ETFs listed in Korea for the period.

On September 10, NH-Amundi Asset Management announced that its 'HANARO Fn K-Semiconductor' ETF posted the highest return among all domestic ETFs listed in Korea since the start of the year.

According to the Korea Exchange, as of September 9, the year-to-date return of the ETF stood at 181.65%. This is the highest among all domestic ETFs listed in Korea, with the exception of leveraged products.

The HANARO Fn K-Semiconductor ETF tracks the ‘FnGuide K-Semiconductor Index’ and invests in 20 stocks representing Korea’s semiconductor industry. Samsung Electronics and SK hynix make up the largest allocation, while other holdings include SK Square, Samsung Electro-Mechanics, Jusung Engineering, and ISU Petasys—covering both leading and SoBuJang firms.

Korean semiconductor stocks, after a strong first half, experienced a market correction in the second half. However, since August, expectations for ongoing artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure investments by major global tech firms have become more concrete, driving a rebound in the sector.

In particular, Nvidia has reaffirmed the idea that "compute is revenue,” and the global race to develop AI has intensified, with OpenAI unveiling its frontier AI model, ‘GPT-6 Astra,’ which uses more than 100,000 graphics processing units (GPUs). As a result, optimism about the prospects for high-performance memory-focused K-semiconductor companies has grown stronger once again.

Kim Seungcheol, Head of ETF Investment Division at NH-Amundi Asset Management, stated, “As the leap in AI performance ultimately depends on massive computational infrastructure, demand for semiconductors is expected to increase, positioning Korea’s memory-centric semiconductor sector as a key beneficiary in the current cycle. With the recent easing of somewhat overheated investment sentiment and a resulting market correction, it is time to renew attention to K-semiconductor stocks.”

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