Starting on this day, the investment threshold for single-stock leveraged products will be raised. Financial authorities, citing concerns that money was excessively concentrating in single-stock leveraged products and amplifying market volatility, increased the basic margin requirement for retail investors to 30 million won from 10 million won.
Brokerages expect the market impact of the new rules to be limited but say positive changes could emerge in supply and demand within the KOSPI.
Kim Jae-seung of Hyundai Motor Securities said, "Since July, inflows into single-stock leveraged ETFs have already slowed sharply, so the impact of this regulation on the overall market will likely be limited," adding, "However, as individual funds that had concentrated in certain stocks disperse into plain equity ETFs, it could act as a factor that facilitates rotation within the KOSPI."
In fact, retail investors' net purchases of single-stock leveraged ETFs reached 1.13 trillion won from May 27, right after the products launched, through the end of June, but fell to 380 billion won after July. By contrast, during the same period, net purchases of domestic equity ETFs excluding single-stock leverage increased from 220 billion won to 470 billion won, showing a flow of funds moving to other ETF products.
Kim said, "After the July correction, the shares of net assets (AUM) and turnover in leveraged ETFs are normalizing toward their long-term averages," adding, "As the concentration in single-stock leveraged ETFs eases, conditions for rotation are forming, with improvements such as the KOSPI market's ADR (advance-decline ratio)."
However, the effect on supply and demand in the KOSDAQ market is expected to be limited. Kim said, "Retail investors are moving money withdrawn from single-stock leveraged ETFs into other ETFs rather than individual stocks," adding, "As the share of ETF investing rises, the environment will remain relatively more favorable for the KOSPI and large-cap stocks than for the KOSDAQ."