Key highlights

  • ASX:IKO tracks the MSCI Korea 25/50 Net Total Return Index and is fully invested in South Korea.
  • SK hynix (25.29%) and Samsung Electronics (23.12%) together make up 48.41% of the portfolio.
  • The fund holds 85 companies, with the top ten accounting for 63.17%.

The iShares MSCI South Korea ETF (ASX:IKO) offers exposure to the South Korean share market through a single ASX-quoted fund. It seeks to track the performance of the MSCI Korea 25/50 Net Total Return Index (AUD), an index that applies capping rules to limit the weight of the largest companies.

About the Fund

IKO was admitted to the ASX on 15 November 2007 and is classified in the Equity World Other category. The fund is managed by BlackRock’s Australian arm and has about $168.04 million in assets. The management fee is 0.45%.

Country exposure

The fund’s entire country allocation is to South Korea (100%).

Every holding is a company with a market value above $1 billion, and stocks make up 99.48% of the portfolio.

Portfolio holdings

The portfolio holds 85 companies, with top ten holdings making up 63.17% of the fund. The largest positions are SK hynix Inc (25.29%), Samsung Electronics Co Ltd (23.12%), SK Square (3.15%), Samsung Electro-Mechanics Co Ltd (2.77%) and KB Financial Group Inc (1.95%).

The top ten also include Shinhan Financial Group, Hyundai Motor, Hana Financial Group, Doosan Enerbility and Hanwha Aerospace. Because two companies account for nearly half of the fund, the portfolio is more concentrated than the number of holdings suggests.

Understanding the exposure

The five largest positions add up to 56.28% of the fund, which shows how much of the exposure rests on a small number of names. The remaining 75 holdings share the other 36.83% of the portfolio, an average of about 0.49% each. Every holding is based in South Korea, so the fund’s exposure sits entirely in that one market and it has no allocation to other countries.

Fees, size and distributions

The most recent distribution was a final distribution of $13.985 per unit, with an ex-date of 1 July 2026 and payment on 13 July 2026, and the reported annual yield is 6.23%.

Fund structure and reporting

IKO has an ISIN of AU000000IKO6 and a head office at Level 12, 33 Alfred Street, Sydney. Recent ASX announcements from the fund include monthly applications, redemptions and units-on-issue notices, an updated Product Disclosure Statement on 24 September 2026 and the annual financial report for 30 June 2026.

Equity World Other funds are almost exclusively dedicated to global stocks, with less than 20% of the portfolio in assets other than equities, and they may be defined by a single sector or country exposure.

Units in IKO are quoted on the ASX and can be bought and sold through a broker during trading hours, in the same way as shares, so the exposure described above is available without buying each holding separately. The fund follows a rules-based index, so its holdings and weightings are set by the index methodology and adjusted when the index is rebalanced.