South korea: South Korea's main bourse operator announced on Monday that its value-up index surpassed the performance of the benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) by climbing over 30 percent from January to July.

According to Yonhap News Agency, the Korea Exchange's (KRX) value-up index increased by 35.8 percent over the past seven months, outperforming the KOSPI, which saw a rise of 35.3 percent in the same timeframe. The value-up index consists of 100 companies that exhibit strong performance across various qualitative metrics such as profitability and shareholder returns.

The KRX launched the index in September with the aim of enhancing the corporate value of domestic companies. As of the end of July, net assets in 12 Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) tracking the value-up index reached 834.1 billion won (approximately US$602.5 million), marking a 68 percent increase from 496.1 billion won when the funds were first introduced in November.

Local companies have purchased shares worth 16 trillion won of their own stock by the end of July, while treasury stock retirements amounted to 18.3 trillion won during the same period. In July alone, local firms repurchased 6.5 trillion won worth of their own shares, with Samsung Electronics Co. accounting for 60 percent of this total. Additionally, these companies have decided to distribute a combined total of 43.9 trillion won in dividends as of last month, reflecting an 11.3 percent increase compared to the same period last year, as reported by the KRX.