‘KRX Mid 200 Index’
South Korea's bourse operator, or the Korea Exchange (KRX), announced on June 11 that it has developed a new index to be named “KRX Mid 200” that tracks mid-cap shares from both the benchmark KOSPI and secondary KOSDAQ.
The KRX Mid 200 index is made up of mid-cap shares after the KRX 300 introduced in February. The KRX selected shares that can be actually managed by funds among common shares listed on the KOSPI and the KOSDAQ markets first and then filtered out blue-chip shares out of them again based on market size, liquidity and financial conditions. As a result, the new index consists of top 200 shares in terms of market capitalization that are not included in the KRX 300 regardless of industry.
Accordingly, the KRX Mid 200 index incorporates 67 KOSPI shares, or 34 percent, and 133 KOSDAQ entities, or 66 percent, out of a total of 200 shares. The KOSPI shares took up 35.6 percent in terms of market capitalization as of the end of May, while the KOSDAQ shares accounted for 64.4 percent. For the KRX 300, the KOSDAQ made up only 6 percent.
By industry, 44 healthcare shares account for most at 25.5 percent, followed by information technology (IT) and communications at 24.6 percent and industrial materials at 13.7 percent. An official from the KRX said, “With the launch of the KRX Mid 200 after the KRX 300, there are more products that track both the KOSPI and the KOSDAQ markets. We hope that it can contribute to the balanced growth of the domestic stock market.”