(Bloomberg) -- Investors piled the most cash this year into the world's largest exchange-traded fund focused on South Korea last week, ahead of the historic Trump-Kim summit in Singapore.
The $5.5 billion Samsung Kodex 200 Securities ETF, which tracks the Kospi 200 Index and trades in South Korea, saw $471 million in net inflows for the week ended June 9 according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The fund, whose biggest holdings include Samsung Electronics Co. and SK Hynix Inc., is down 3.1 percent for the year versus little change in the benchmark Kospi index.
This contrasts with action on the second-largest South Korea-focused fund, the U.S.-listed $4.2 billion iShares MSCI South Korea ETF, which saw its biggest outflow since March -- about $33 million -- in the same week. The thinly traded fund is down 1.5 percent in 2018.
Meanwhile, the cost to hedge against swings in the U.S.-listed ETF climbed to the highest level since December relative to the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust.
Read more on what investors said about the Trump-Kim summit in Singapore
Investors are bracing themselves for volatility this week as they await the results of the meeting. The leaders expressed optimism that the U.S. and North Korea can find a path to peace as the summit got underway Tuesday.
To contact the reporter on this story: Eric Lam in Hong Kong at elam87@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Divya Balji at dbalji1@bloomberg.net, Kurt Schussler
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