Travelers at Incheon International Airport walk around duty free stores on Dec. 11. Yonhap

By Lee Min-hyung

Korea's COVID-19 reopening-related stocks are on a rally amid growing hopes for China's lifting of strict lockdown measures, multiple data showed.

According to data from market tracker, FnGuide, the average profitability of 31 funds related to consumer goods reached 4.57 percent for a month until Dec. 16. This was far above that of local stock funds which reported negative 5 percent during the same period. Stock prices for consumer goods companies are generally considered key beneficiaries of loosening of pandemic restrictions.

Other data also showed that Korea's consumer goods and reopening-related stocks have reported robust rallies for the past month. According to data from the Korea Exchange, the KOSPI 200's consumer goods index rose by 4.49 percent during the same period. This was in contrast to the overall drop of the local stock market. The main KOSPI fell by 4.85 percent between Nov. 16 and Dec. 16. The abrupt rollback of China's stubborn anti-coronavirus policy has also driven a solid rebound of stock indexes in the world's second-largest economy and Hong Kong.

Stocks in the cosmetics sector have displayed particularly robust growth on expectations of their sales rebound in China. Shares of AmorePacific Group increased by 9.32 percent during the same period. Aekyung, a beauty and cosmetics firm, enjoyed bigger growth in its stock value, with its stock prices soaring more than 24 percent.

But it remains to be seen whether they will be able to continue their growth momentum in a stable manner amid a lingering possibility of China's reversal of the latest measure, as the number of infected cases are on the steep rise there after the easing of the rules. The portion of short-selling in AmorePacific shares reached about 15 percent as of Dec. 1, but the figure increased to 23.5 percent on Dec. 16 due to the likelihood of reopening stocks extending volatility.

Market analysts advised investors to pay attention to consumer staple stocks in 2023, as it is hard to predict which of either value or growth stocks will be able to achieve a rally.

"It looks difficult to predict which stocks from the value or growth sectors will advance," Shinhan Securities analyst Roh Dong-gil said.

Shares of consumer staples and materials stayed in the top level of profitability during a period when the gap in profitability between value and growth stocks remained within 1.5 percentage points, according to the analyst.