[THE INVESTOR] The Korean fund market enjoyed an inflow of investment last week on rising demand for real estate instruments, market data showed on Jan. 13.

The total value of local investment funds’ products stood at an all-time high of 579.1 trillion won ($518.9 billion) as of Jan. 10, up 63.6 trillion won from a year earlier, according to data from the Korea Financial Investment Association.

The number has set records for three straight days since Tuesday, when it hit 575.4 trillion won. The previous high, recorded Aug. 8, 2018, was 572.8 billion won.

Real estate funds’ value jumped 15.7 trillion won on-year to 75.5 trillion won, while the total value of funds that were invested in special properties and assets gained 12.8 trillion won to 71.3 trillion won.

However, the total value of money market funds edged up 1.8 trillion won to 115.7 trillion won over the one-year period.

Experts said the highly volatile stock market is pushing investors to bet their money on relatively stable real estate and other assets like ships.

Korea’s benchmark Kospi slumped 17.8 percent on-year to finish at 2,041 points in 2018 from the previous year’s close of 2,467.5 points. 

By Park Ga-young and newswires (gypark@heraldcorp.com)