As share prices of Korea's leading semiconductor stocks have surged recently, money is flowing rapidly into related high-risk products listed on overseas markets. Analysts say that with only 2x leverage products on Samsung Electronics (005930.KS) and SK hynix (000660.KS) permitted in Korea, demand from investors seeking more aggressive returns is shifting to overseas 3x leverage products.
According to the financial investment industry on Tuesday, the net asset value of the "SK hynix 3x Leverage Exchange-Traded Product (ETP)," listed by British investment manager Leverage Shares on the London Stock Exchange on Nov. 12, increased from $543,335 (about 835.32 million won) on the listing day to $6,521,403 (about 10.026 billion won) on Nov. 19. That marks an approximately 12-fold surge in just the first five trading days.
The Samsung Electronics 3x leverage ETP, listed on the same day, also saw its net asset value increase about 7-fold, from $284,320 to $1,994,320.
The market interpreted this fund flow as a signal that money is selectively concentrating on memory semiconductor segments with high earnings expectations, such as high-bandwidth memory (HBM), amid the artificial intelligence (AI) investment frenzy. In fact, the 3x leverage ETP on Cerebras Systems, a U.S. semiconductor design company that listed last month and drew attention as a rival to Nvidia, recorded a net asset value of only $131,293 since its listing.
"A significant portion of investors in overseas leverage products of 2x or higher are understood to be Korean retail investors," a financial investment industry official said. "There is a strong possibility that overseas asset managers will successively launch products targeting Korean investors, aiming at the high-risk investment demand that is not permitted domestically."
