A currency distributor, wearing a mask to prevent the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), works in front of electronic boards showing the Korean Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) at a bank in Seoul , South Korea, September 10, 2020.
Kim Hong Ji | Reuters
Investors who held on to South Korean stocks until 2020 received a good reward.
The Kospi index, South Korea’s stock market benchmark, rose 30.8% during the year, its biggest annual jump in more than a decade. The iShares MSCI South Korea (EWY) ETF rose 38.4% in 2020, surpassing the most developed and emerging markets. The ETF’s year-to-date gains to date exceed those of other widely followed emerging markets, as well as the S&P 500 in the US
South Korea’s strong equity market yields came as the country’s health response to the coronavirus pandemic, along with existing fiscal and monetary stimulus measures, prevented its economy from losing a pace for most of 2020.
“In South Korea, you have this combination of healthy public policies along with many [economic] policy support, “said Mehran Nakhjavani, partner and emerging market strategist at MRB Partners.” The timing of everything was fortuitous. “