The Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) has followed Eurex’s lead to become the second non-Korean derivatives exchange to offer Korean index futures.
The American exchange launched the FTSE South Korea regulated investment company (RIC) capped index futures seven months after the European exchange began offering futures on the MSCI Korea Net Total Return Index (FMKR).
READ MORE: Overlapping exchange instruments fragment liquidity
Open interest on the instrument is currently US$28 thousand, with an underlying closing price of US$1,682.
In January, 10,195 contracts were traded with a daily average of 485 – down 82.66% month-on-month (MoM). A total €708 million was traded (€33 million average daily volume), down 78.24% MoM.
Activity in the instrument peaked in December 2025, with volumes exceeding €3 billion and over 58,781 contracts traded. January is the second most active month since the product’s launch.
ICE’s USD-denominated contract (SKO) has been created in collaboration with the Korea Exchange and FTSE Russell. It uses FTSE Russell’s RIC capped methodology, which aims to limit single-name concentration. No stock can exceed 20% weighting in the index, and the combined weight of all constituents representing more than 4.5% of the index is capped at 48% of the total index weight.
It trades between 3 AM and 6PM Eastern time.
Currently, the largest securities in the index are Samsung Electronics, semiconductor company SK Hynix with 19.7% and 17% of the index respectively.
