Rep. Park Sang-hyuk urged financial authorities to monitor the market impact of single-stock leveraged ETFs as South Korean retail investors face steep losses.
Rep. Park Sang-hyuk, the Democratic Party's floor secretary on the National Assembly's National Policy Committee, called on financial authorities to closely monitor the market impact of single-stock leveraged exchange-traded funds (ETFs). The move follows a period of sharp volatility and heavy losses for South Korean retail investors who took leveraged bets on semiconductor giants like Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix. The administration announced new measures to curb speculative trading, including raising the minimum cash deposit for these funds from 10 million won to 30 million won and increasing the minimum trading unit to 20 shares. These regulations aim to reduce price volatility and address the concentration of trading near the market close. While the ruling party plans to evaluate the effectiveness of these new rules starting next month, officials noted that additional measures may be considered if market distortions persist. The current shift reflects a move toward stabilizing the market after a speculative boom that saw retail investors heavily overexposed to concentrated technology positions.