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Photo = Yonhap news |
[Alpha Biz= Kim Jisun] Equity funds this year have overwhelmingly favored the U.S. stock market, which has been leading global equity markets. Apart from the U.S., only India and Japan managed to see net inflows, driven by their popularity as emerging markets and value-enhancing policies, respectively.
According to fund tracker FnGuide on Wednesday, U.S. equity funds recorded a net inflow of 11.62 trillion KRW ($8.65 billion) as of December 23, 2024. This contrasts sharply with the 716.7 billion KRW ($535 million) net outflows from non-U.S. overseas equity funds, highlighting the U.S.’s dominance.
The surge of capital into U.S. stocks was fueled by the Nasdaq's over 30% rise this year, particularly among tech stocks. In the domestic ETF market, all top 10 performing ETFs were U.S.-focused. For example, the "KODEX U.S. Growth Stocks" ETF soared 96.58%, and the "HANARO Global Generative AI Active" ETF gained 86.40%.
Outside the U.S., India and Japan were the only countries with positive net inflows. Indian equity funds recorded a net inflow of 1.11 trillion KRW ($828 million) despite a recent outflow of 86.8 billion KRW ($65 million) in the past month. By year-end, India is expected to maintain over 1 trillion KRW in net inflows.
India’s Sensex index rose 18.76% from January to September 26, reaching 85,836.12 points before retreating by around 8% in the fourth quarter.
Japanese equity funds saw a net inflow of 75 billion KRW ($56 million) this year, with the Nikkei 225 posting returns exceeding 17%. Japan's stock market was buoyed by corporate earnings improvements, the Bank of Japan's quantitative easing, and government measures to boost corporate value. However, the rally has paused amid the Bank of Japan’s shift toward interest rate hikes.
On the other hand, Chinese equity funds suffered the largest outflows, losing 1.67 trillion KRW ($1.24 billion). Vietnamese and Brazilian equity funds also saw net outflows of 204.7 billion KRW ($152 million) and 13.6 billion KRW ($10 million), respectively.
AlphaBIZ Kim Jisun(stockmk2020@alphabiz.co.kr)
