Measures to cool leveraged ETF market to come 'as early as possible': financial regulator
Lee Eog-weon, right, chairman of the Financial Services Commission, heads to an emergency market inspection meeting held at the administrative office in central Seoul, Wednesday. Yonhap
Korea's financial regulator said Thursday it plans to carry out additional measures to cool the single-stock leveraged exchange-traded funds (ETFs) "as early as possible."
The announcement by the Financial Services Commission (FSC) came after an emergency market inspection meeting it held with other related agencies Wednesday night, following concerns the investment product has amplified wild market swings and triggered sharp sell-offs and retail losses.
The FSC plans to prepare legal grounds to activate market stabilization measures by revising the Capital Markets Act with the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS).
The FSC added it will also have brokerages set limits on the maximum amount of investment into single-stock leveraged ETFs, in order to prevent investors from taking excessive risks by investing a majority of their assets into such ETFs.
Earlier, financial authorities decided to hike the minimum cash deposit for single-stock leveraged ETF investments, which is set to go into effect on Friday.
South Korea's benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index has shown extreme volatility recently, as its two chipmaking heavyweights -- Samsung Electronics and SK hynix -- suffered massive losses on renewed concerns over artificial intelligence spending.
After topping 9,000 points in June, the index tumbled to 5,593.56 points Thursday.
Single-stock ETFs were launched in the local market on May 27.