Seoul: The chief financial regulator of South Korea announced a plan to relax rules concerning single-stock leveraged exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in an effort to attract domestic investors. Lee Eog-weon, chairman of the Financial Services Commission (FSC), revealed this development during a meeting with reporters, emphasizing that these changes are designed to enhance the appeal of the local financial market.

According to Yonhap News Agency, Lee stated that the new regulations will permit single-stock leveraged or inverse ETFs to offer up to twice the daily performance of an underlying stock. This regulatory easing aims to address the recent disinterest shown by retail investors towards the local stock market, which has experienced sluggish performance.

The landscape, however, has shifted recently, with the country's benchmark index, the KOSPI, surging over 90 percent in the past year. This remarkable rally has been fueled by a boom in the artificial intelligence sector and a rise in chip stocks, notably Samsung Electronics. Financial authorities are optimistic that the return of retail investors to the domestic market will also contribute to curbing the Korean won's decline against the U.S. dollar.