Avoiding a Big Tech-heavy tilt pays off: Korea Investment Holdings’ S&P 500 equal-weight fund leads in returns

[Financial News] Amid rising volatility in the U.S. stock market, particularly in AI and semiconductor stocks, a publicly offered fund that invests in S&P 500 constituents with equal weighting recorded the highest returns over key periods.
Korea Investment Management Co., Ltd. said on the 10th that its Korea Investment U.S. S&P 500 Equal-Weight Morae Dream Fund ranked first over key short- and medium-term periods among publicly offered funds established in Korea that invest in the U.S. S&P 500.
According to FnGuide, as of the 9th, the fund had returns of -1.33% over the past three months, 5.22% over six months, 9.89% year to date and 13.70% over one year. The average returns for products of the same type were -5.76%, -2.80%, 3.38% and 5.34%, respectively.
In Korea, there are 12 publicly offered funds tracking the S&P 500, excluding exchange-traded funds (ETFs), or 145 when counted by share class. The currency-hedged Korea Investment U.S. S&P 500 Equal-Weight Morae Dream Fund H(C-F) ranked first in returns over six months, year to date and one year, excluding the three-month period.
The fund invests equally in all 500 S&P 500 constituents. Unlike the conventional market-cap-weighted approach, in which the weights of some large-cap Big Tech stocks grow, it allocates investments evenly across a range of sectors, including industrials, financials and healthcare.
A shorter redemption period is another feature. Overseas equity funds typically take about nine business days from a redemption request to payment, but for this fund, requests submitted before 5 p.m. receive payment that same day, using the T+2 base price set on the third business day from the request date. As of the 9th, assets under management across its currency-hedged, currency-unhedged and U.S. dollar share classes totaled 32.1 billion won.
Lee Woo-jong, a manager in the Global Quant Management Department at Korea Investment Management Co., Ltd., said, “With U.S. industrial production and orders still solid, this is a time when managing volatility among AI companies is important to investment performance,” adding, “This is a product that allows investors to invest evenly in high-quality companies that broadly support the U.S. economy, rather than in a specific theme.”
[email protected] Bae Han-geul Reporter