The Best-Performing Group Stock ETF This Year Is 'Hanwha'

PLUS Hanwha Group Stock ETF Surges Over 58% This Year
POSCO, SK, and Hyundai Motor Group Also Achieve Double-Digit Returns
Samsung Group Gains 6-7%, Underperforming KOSPI
LG Group Stock ETF Is the Poorest Performer, Rising Only Around 1%

As the stock market has shown strength this year, group stock exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have generally recorded favorable returns. Among them, the Hanwha Group stock ETF posted an overwhelming return, rising more than 58%.

According to the Korea Exchange on the 26th, the PLUS Hanwha Group stock ETF rose 58.69% this year. The strong performance of defense and shipbuilding stocks and the excellent results of affiliates have propelled the group stock ETF. Hanwha Aerospace rose 100.31% this year, Hanwha Ocean 83.40%, Hanwha Vision 73.42%, Hanwha 57.25%, and Hanwha Systems 51.33%, with group companies showing significant gains.

POSCO Group showed the next highest returns. The ACE POSCO Group Focus ETF rose 21.63% this year. Although it recorded negative returns last year due to sluggish secondary battery stocks, it has shown improvement this year thanks to positive factors in the steel sector, such as expectations for the U.S. Alaska gas pipeline project. The ACE POSCO Group Focus ETF recorded a -56.48% return last year, ranking among the lowest in returns.

Additionally, SK Group and Hyundai Motor Group ETFs also posted double-digit returns. This year, KIWOOM SK Group Representative rose 11.09%, and TIGER Hyundai Motor Group + Fundamentals rose 12.80%. Hyundai Motor Group's defense stock, Hyundai Rotem, led the stock price increase. For automobile stocks, concerns over tariffs, which had been a drag, have eased due to Hyundai Motor Group's approximately 31 trillion won investment in the U.S., raising expectations for stock price gains. Following the U.S. investment announcement, Hyundai Motor rose 3.29%, Kia 2.13%, and Hyundai Mobis 0.72% respectively on the previous day. Hyundai Mobis also reached a 52-week high intraday at 300,500 won.

Samsung Group ETFs recorded returns in the 6-7% range. KODEX Samsung Group returned 6.49%, TIGER Samsung Group Fundamentals 6.08%, and ACE Samsung Group Sector Weighted 7.32%. These returns were below the KOSPI index's performance during the same period. The KOSPI rose 9.02% this year.

The LG Group was the poorest performer among group stock ETFs. TIGER LG Group + Fundamentals rose only 1.88% this year. This is attributed to the poor performance of major group companies such as LG, LG Electronics, LG Chem, LG Innotek, and LG Household & Health Care, which have consecutively recorded 52-week lows this year.

Although the Hanwha Group stock ETF maintained a strong upward trend since the beginning of the year, its momentum appears to have weakened recently. The PLUS Hanwha Group stock ETF fell 9.25% over the past week. The announcement of a 3.6 trillion won rights offering by Hanwha Aerospace seems to have had a negative impact. Earlier, on the 20th, Hanwha Aerospace disclosed that it would conduct a 3.6 trillion won rights offering to secure funds for future growth engines. Hanwha Aerospace's stock price, which hit an all-time high of 780,000 won intraday on the 18th, has dropped to the 650,000 won range. Kiwoom Securities analyst Lee Han-gyeol analyzed, "While local production bases and equity investments are necessary to secure mid- to long-term competitiveness in expanding overseas business in the defense and shipbuilding sectors, considering the scale and method, a short-term stock price adjustment is inevitable."