Capital Inflow
The Korea Financial Investment Association announced on Mar. 5 that the total fund balance increased by 11.2 trillion won (US$10.2 billion) month-on-month to 407.8 trillion won (US$370.9 billion) at the end of February this year, with net assets adding up to 406.2 trillion won (US$369.5 billion), a 3.3 percent growth.
The capital inflow into money market funds (MMF) and bond funds showed a significant increase in particular. Specifically, the net inflow into MMF amounted to 4.9 trillion won (US$4.5 billion) last month. As of the end of February, net MMF assets reached 100.8 trillion won (US$91.8 billion), 5.3 percent up from a month ago, to break the 100 trillion won mark for the first time since July 2009. The net inflow into bond funds totaled 2.8 trillion won (US$2.5 billion), increasing net assets by 4 trillion won (US$3.6 billion) to 76.6 trillion won (US$69.7 billion).
In the meantime, the net assets of funds of funds went up 26.8 percent to 20.7 trillion won (US$18.9 billion), led mainly by the increase in funds entrusted by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure & Transport. Stock fund net assets increased by 1.4 trillion won (US$1.2 billion) to 77.1 trillion won (US$70.1 billion).
Although the net inflow into domestic stock funds was rather limited, net assets rose to 62.5 trillion won (US$56.8 billion) with 1.6 percent growth based on an uptrend in the KOSPI. Foreign stock funds attracted 22.4 billion won (US$20.4 million) to show a net inflow for the first time in 68 months. The net assets of special assets and real estate funds increased approximately 600 billion won (US$546 million) and 500 billion won (US$455 million), respectively.