As the KOSPI surpassed the 5,000 mark intraday for the first time on the 22nd, the paper gains of President Lee Jae-myung, who has directly invested in domestic index exchange-traded funds (ETFs), also jumped significantly.
On May 28 last year, when he was a presidential candidate, the president pledged a "KOSPI 5000 era" and directly bought 40 million won worth of ETF products. At the time, he promised to invest an additional 1 million won every month for the next five years, totaling 60 million won, in "TIGER200," to purchase a total of 100 million won worth of ETFs.
The president also revealed his investment portfolio via a YouTube broadcast, noting his intention to pursue long-term investing focused on domestic indexes. The ETFs he chose were "KODEX 200," which tracks the KOSPI200 index, and "KODEX KOSDAQ150," which is based on the KOSDAQ150 index.
According to a Koscom check, from the time the president bought "KODEX 200" through the previous trading day on the 21st, the ETF rose 115.8%. "KODEX KOSDAQ150" gained 37.9% over the same period.
Applying the simple return rate as of the day, the president's ETF paper gains are estimated to have easily exceeded 30 million won.
Earlier, on Sept. 18 last year, the presidential office said the president's ETF paper gains were 11.6 million won. That was a return rate of 26.4%. At the time, the KOSPI was at the 3,460 level.
"It will accelerate the flow of real estate funds transferring into stocks, and until the day of leaving office, will stand with 14 million retail investors to achieve KOSPI 5000," presidential office Spokesperson Kang Yu-jung said.
Meanwhile, among individual investors, a systematic plan of steadily investing a fixed amount in ETFs every month is spreading, and on the back of that, the ETF market's growth is also standing out.
In fact, the total ETF net assets surpassed 200 trillion won in June last year and, in just seven months, exceeded 300 trillion won on the 5th of this month. As the KOSPI has hit record highs day after day since the new year, ETF net assets surged to 327.6912 trillion won as of the 20th.
Investor deposits also stood at 95.526 trillion won as of the same day, on the verge of surpassing 100 trillion won.
Han Ji-young of Kiwoom Securities said, "If the KOSPI is re-rated to around 12 times price-earnings ratio (PER), the upper bound opens to the 5,200 level," adding, "Considering the possibility of upward revisions to profit estimates centered on semiconductors, the bull market trend will likely continue for the time being."