Oil funds remain bullish on rising crude oil prices

SEOUL, Jan. 8 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's oil exchange traded funds (ETFs) have reported higher returns in recent months as international crude prices rallied, a fund evaluator said Monday.

The nation's three major oil ETFs posted an average return of 14.15 percent in the past three months, emerging as the top performers among local commodity funds, KG Zeroin said.

Comparable yields were 4.62 percent for commodity funds and 3.84 percent for the benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index.

Oil ETFs consist of either crude firm stocks or futures and derivative contracts to track the price and performance of crude, or in some cases oil-related indexes.

Global oil prices have been on a steady rise since last August after hitting a low point of US$42 per barrel.

The benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) has been hovering around $61 for barrel in recent days amid the Middle East tensions.

Oh Eun-soo, an analyst at KB Securities Co., expected oil prices to temporarily fluctuate this year due to heightened geopolitical instability in the Middle East.
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