KOSDAQ ETFs Suffer Massive Losses as Investors' "Buy the Dip" Strategy Fails

Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) investing in the KOSDAQ market have recorded consecutive negative returns, effectively facing a state of "annihilation."

With the KOSDAQ index plummeting by over 20% in the past month, it has been confirmed that both passive ETFs tracking the index and active ETFs that select specific stocks have suffered significant losses.

The one-month returns for 23 KOSDAQ-related ETFs listed on the domestic stock market, excluding leveraged and inverse products, have all recorded negative figures.

Passive products tracking the KOSDAQ 150 index, such as "KODEX KOSDAQ 150" at -25.67% and "TIGER KOSDAQ 150" at -25.58%, have all fallen by around 25%.

ETFs tracking KOSDAQ thematic indices, such as KOSDAQ Global and KOSDAQ 150 IT, also incurred heavy losses.

"SOL KOSDAQ TOP 10," which focuses on top market-cap stocks in the KOSDAQ, showed the largest decline, falling 32.02% during this period.

Active ETFs, where fund managers select stocks to aim for excess returns, were also unable to avoid the plunge. Major active ETFs, including "TIME KOSDAQ Active" at -26.09%, "KoAct KOSDAQ Active" at -24.36%, and "PLUS KOSDAQ 150 Active" at -23.90%, all recorded double-digit losses.

"DS KOSDAQ Active," which was listed on July 14, also fell 8.15% since its listing.

Despite this market crash, retail investors continued their "buy the dip" trend. In the case of "KODEX KOSDAQ 150," which has the largest net asset scale among KOSDAQ-related ETFs, 296.5 billion won was net-purchased over the past month.

"DS KOSDAQ Active" also attracted 10.6 billion won within a week of its listing, while 7.6 billion won and 6.2 billion won were net-inflowed into "TIME KOSDAQ Active" and "TIGER KOSDAQ Active," respectively, over the past month.

Investors who hoped for a KOSDAQ rebound continued to pour money in, but most have been left with losses.

Analysts in the securities industry suggest that as market liquidity has recently concentrated on large-cap semiconductor stocks, the KOSDAQ market has entered an unprecedented phase of neglect.

Reported by Kim Minjeong | Video by Kim Na-on | Graphics by Yang Hye-min | Produced by SBS Digital News
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.