KODEX Money Market Active Surpasses 4 Trillion KRW in Net Assets... Increases by 1 Trillion KRW in Just 14 Trading Days

The ETF trend is spreading even into the money market fund (MMF) market, which is considered a representative cash-equivalent asset.

Samsung Asset Management announced on the 18th that the KODEX Money Market Active ETF has surpassed 4 trillion won in net assets. It increased by more than 1 trillion won in just 14 trading days after breaking through 3 trillion won last month. It set a record by exceeding 4 trillion won in the shortest period of 89 trading days since its listing.

This is interpreted as a result of increased demand from investors for short-term fund management amid growing domestic and international political and economic uncertainties and a domestic interest rate cut trend.

KODEX Money Market Active is an ETF designed based on the MMF management method, investing in ultra-short-term bonds and CP (commercial paper), among others. It minimizes price fluctuation risks due to interest rate changes while adopting a more flexible management approach compared to traditional MMFs, allowing for additional returns. Although its portfolio, stock composition, and duration are similar to those of existing MMFs, it has relatively fewer management restrictions compared to MMFs, which have holding ratio limits for each investment product. Since it applies market valuation, it can achieve higher returns than general MMFs.

In the current situation where the base interest rate has dropped to around 3.0% per annum, investors continue to buy because it can pursue higher returns than general MMFs. Since its listing in August, KODEX Money Market Active recorded an annual return of 3.73%, ranking first among similar ETFs. Individual investors have continuously purchased since its listing, recording a cumulative net purchase of 73.1 billion won.

Institutional investors, who can set up and redeem over-the-counter, also benefit from next-day redemption, receiving funds the day after selling, making this product actively used as a short-term fund management tool. In the past month, the amount of funds flowing into this product reached 1.3897 trillion won, the largest among all ETFs. This contrasts with the 7.1 trillion won decrease in the total assets of 118 public MMF products during the same period.

KODEX Money Market Active was listed at 100,000 won per share, making the actual trading cost for investors relatively lower compared to other products. Due to the ETF characteristic where the bid unit is 5 won regardless of the price per share, by tightly presenting buy and sell LP quotes, the difference between the daily low and high prices since listing has been as little as 5 won, significantly reducing the trading burden for actual investors.

Yoon Sung-in, a manager at Samsung Asset Management, said, "As domestic and international political and economic uncertainties intensify, asset volatility increases, and investor demand for stable ultra-short-term products has greatly increased. KODEX Money Market Active maintains the stability of existing MMFs while pursuing additional returns, becoming a new standard for short-term fund management."