South Korea's ETFs showed a mixed performance in the first half of the year: AI semiconductor stocks soared, while inverse ETFs suffered significant losses.

This year, the performance of the ETF market in South Korea has shown significant differentiation since the beginning of the year. Data indicates that investors betting on artificial intelligence and the semiconductor sector have reaped substantial returns, while those investing in inverse ETFs that bet on a stock market decline have faced significant losses. However, in the past month, as profit-taking and fund rotation have emerged around AI and semiconductor sectors, the short-term yield trends have diverged from the cumulative performance since the beginning of the year. According to data released by the Korea Exchange on the 6th regarding the "ETF Overall Price Changes," an analysis of the returns of 1,040 ETFs listed in South Korea from the beginning of this year to the previous trading day showed that the top-performing products are primarily dominated by AI, semiconductor, and IT-related ETFs. The product with the highest return during this period is the "TIGER 200IT Leveraged ETF," which has increased by 235.46% since the start of the year. It is followed by "HANARO Fn K-Semiconductor," "RISE Network Infrastructure," "TIGER US Philadelphia Semiconductor Leveraged," and "KODEX 200IT TR," among others.