Investors poured billions into BlackRock’s exchange-traded fund tracking South Korean stocks, underscoring strong appetite for artificial intelligence companies even as wild swings continue to roil local equities.
The $22.4 billion iShares MSCI South Korea ETF recorded over $2.8 billion in fresh flows last week alone, the biggest weekly inflow on record. The massive influx of money into the fund was also over twice as large as the previous weekly record from February, when the ETF received more than $1.2 billion in inflows.
“Though prices have pulled back, fundamentals remain strong, and few are questioning the powerful supply-demand setup benefiting Korean technology companies,” said Malcolm Dorson, senior portfolio manager of the Global X EM-ex China ETF and head of EM strategy.
The ETF has proven to be an easy instrument for investors seeking exposure to SK Hynix Inc., as the fund allocates roughly a quarter of its portfolio to the the Korea-listed stock. The surge of inflows also comes days after the memory-chip maker’s US debut ignited intense trading activity and sent its ADRs soaring far above the underlying shares in the Korean market.
“The SK Hynix ADR may have brought Korea more sharply into focus but it’s hard to imagine anyone had failed to notice it was, until recently, the world’s best performing market over the prior year,” said Hasnain Malik, Head of EM Geopolitical Risk and Equity Strategy at Tellimer, based in Dubai.
Elsewhere, inflows to US-listed emerging market ETFs that invest across developing nations as well as those that target specific countries totaled $4.39 billion in the week ended July 17, compared with losses of $78.5 million in the previous week, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. This was the biggest weekly inflow since Feb. 27. So far this year, inflows have totalled $45.1 billion.
- Stock ETFs expanded by $4.22 billion.
- Bond funds rose by $163.5 million.
- Total assets fell to $527.8 billion from $545.7 billion.
- The MSCI Emerging Markets Index closed down 4.1 percent from the previous week at 1,620.66 points, the lowest level since May 01, 2026.
- South Korea had the biggest inflow, of $3.03 billion, led by iShares Inc’s iShares MSCI South Korea.
- No individual country suffered an outflow.
Note: Figures are calculated by country weight using flows to US-listed ETFs. Bloomberg updated the screening criteria in November 2024. Use Bloomberg screening tools to create custom filters.
Following are tables detailing net flows for emerging-market ETFs in US dollars. The data include the holdings-weighted allocations from multi-country funds, as well as country-specific funds. Latest and historic flows are allocated using latest fund weightings (figures in USD millions unless otherwise stated):
Regional Summary
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Read more articles by Leda Alvim and Beatriz Amat
