A foreign money seller, sporting a masks to keep away from the unfold of the coronavirus illness (COVID-19), works in entrance of digital boards displaying the Korea Composite Inventory Worth Index (KOSPI) at a financial institution in Seoul, South Korea, September 10, 2020.
Kim Hong Ji | Reuters
Traders who caught with South Korean shares via 2020 had been handsomely rewarded.
The Kospi index, South Korea’s stock-market benchmark, rallied 30.8% for the 12 months, its greatest annual leap in additional than a decade. The iShares MSCI South Korea ETF (EWY) rose 38.4% in 2020, outperforming most developed and rising markets. The ETF’s year-to-date positive aspects high these of different broadly adopted rising markets in addition to the S&P 500 within the U.S.
South Korea’s sturdy fairness market returns got here because the nation’s well being response to the coronavirus pandemic — together with fiscal and financial stimulus measures already in place — saved its economic system from lacking a beat for many of 2020.
“In South Korea, you’ve this mixture of excellent well being public coverage along with loads of [economic] coverage help,” mentioned Mehran Nakhjavani, associate and rising market strategist at MRB Companions. “The timing of all of it was fortuitous.”