NH-Amundi Asset Management said on the 27th that the "HANARO Fn K-Semiconductor ETF," which invests in core stocks of Korea's semiconductor industry, has surpassed 2 trillion won in net assets.
According to the Korea Exchange (KRX), as of on the 21st, the HANARO Fn K-Semiconductor ETF's net assets stood at 2.0446 trillion won. After breaking 1 trillion won at the end of Jan., its asset size more than doubled in about three months.
An NH-Amundi Asset Management official said that despite market turmoil from external volatility such as the Middle East conflict, steady inflows of buying from investors drove rapid growth in asset size.
The HANARO Fn K-Semiconductor ETF is an exchange-traded fund (ETF) that invests in 20 Korea-based semiconductor corporations. Along with Samsung Electronics and SK hynix, which represent K-semiconductors, a key feature is its heavy weighting in Samsung Electro-Mechanics.
Samsung Electro-Mechanics' high-value multilayer ceramic capacitors (MLCC) and high-density package substrates (FC-BGA) for highly integrated semiconductors are emerging as essential materials for artificial intelligence (AI) data centers. As Samsung Electro-Mechanics shares have risen sharply since the start of the year, its weighting in the ETF has grown to a level similar to Samsung Electronics and SK hynix, helping drive returns.
As of on the 23rd, the year-to-date return of the HANARO Fn K-Semiconductor ETF was 109.06%, the highest among domestic equity-type semiconductor ETFs excluding leveraged products. The 6-month and 1-year returns were also the highest at 145.78% and 365.36%, respectively.
Behind these results are a surge in demand for High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) as AI infrastructure expands and price increases stemming from supply shortages of general-purpose memory semiconductors.
Samsung Electronics' preliminary first-quarter operating profit on a consolidation basis was about 57 trillion won, far exceeding market consensus, and SK hynix also posted operating profit of 3.76103 trillion won, up 405% from a year earlier, marking its highest-ever quarterly performance. With global AI infrastructure investment, centered on the United States, continuing, the favorable business conditions for Korea's semiconductor industry are also expected to persist in the long term.
Kim Seung-cheol, head of ETF Investments at NH-Amundi Asset Management, said, "The semiconductor market is not merely recovering but is entering a major paradigm shift of building AI infrastructure," and added, "As global AI investment continues, the related value chain is expected to keep growing."