Korean investors are moving toward overseas sector funds as tighter rules curb trading in single-stock leveraged products. From Aug. 1 through Tuesday, they traded $16.02 billion in their 50 most-traded U.S. securities, according to the Korea Securities Depository’s Securities Information Broadway portal. Leveraged products accounted for $6.95 billion, or 43.4%, of that settlement volume, even as total trading fell 11.7% from $18.14 billion a year earlier. Leveraged-product settlement volume rose 8.9% from $6.38 billion. Equity-based leveraged products tied to U.S. stocks and indexes, excluding cryptocurrency, volatility and bond products, increased their share of trading by 15.6 percentage points to 43.4% from 27.8%. Market observers describe the shift as a balloon effect, with demand moving from restricted single-stock products into sector funds such as SOXL, which are exempt from the new 30 million won ($21,500) minimum deposit requirement. New rules also require simulated trading for retail investors and tighten ETF (exchange-traded fund) price-deviation controls.