In the first half of this year, the Korean stock market posted the highest rise in the world. As heavy buying by individual investors continued, led by large caps, the KOSPI index topped 9,000 points for the first time this month.
In a supportive global liquidity environment, profit momentum in export sectors such as IT hardware and industrials, centered on semiconductors, is gradually strengthening. In particular, as the semiconductor industry is entering a structural growth phase beyond a short-term cycle, the possibility is growing that profit improvement will spread across related industries.
NH-Amundi Asset Management said there is further room for profit momentum to improve across the domestic market, and that a strategy focused on exporters directly linked to global demand and on core corporations within leading industries is effective.
NH-Amundi Asset Management presented the "NH-Amundi Pilseung Korea Fund" as an option that can respond effectively in the current rally led by leading sectors. This equity fund invests in corporations with technological innovation and global competitiveness that can maintain their edge even amid industrial restructuring. It targets as major investments corporations that can grow in tandem during a phase of strengthening industrial competitiveness.
Looking at the fund's portfolio, it is built around key semiconductor names, the core pillar of the industrial transition triggered by the spread of artificial intelligence (AI). It also includes names whose growth benefits can spread to adjacent industries. Through this, the fund can respond more nimbly to growth trends within leading industries, NH-Amundi Asset Management said.
The fund's returns are strong as well. Launched on Aug. 14, 2019, the fund posted a 1-year return of 303.97% (Class C) as of June 19 this year. That outpaces the rise in its benchmark, the KOSPI200 (265.85%).
An NH-Amundi Asset Management official said, "We expect the share-price rally led by leading sectors and the profit momentum underpinning it to improve," adding, "It is worth paying attention to the NH-Amundi Pilseung Korea Fund, which pursues an active management strategy focused on industrial structure changes and profit growth trends."