A "high-dividend stock money move" driven by companies raising dividend payout ratios is emerging as a key theme in this year's stock market, as the government unveils a tax overhaul and shareholder-friendly policies are strengthened through a revision to the Commercial Act.

Samsung Asset Management said on Monday it will newly list the KODEX Shareholder Return High Dividend Stocks ETF, reflecting the domestic shareholder-return trend.

The ETF's detailed inclusion rules target companies whose cash dividends did not decline from a year earlier, and that either have a dividend payout ratio of at least 40 percent or have a payout ratio of at least 25 percent while increasing dividends by at least 10 percent from a year earlier.

Among companies meeting those conditions, it selected again the top 30 stocks with the highest shareholder-return yield. It 구성했다 by raising to 55 percent the weight of companies that announced share buybacks and cancellations among all constituent holdings.

It was designed in particular to include companies carrying out "reduced-capital dividends" that have been introduced recently. Reduced-capital dividends are dividends paid using funds generated by reducing capital reserves, and for ordinary shareholders they are tax-exempt and excluded from comprehensive taxation on financial income.

It will also implement "mid-month dividends," with the 15th of each month as the record date. If invested together with typical monthly dividend ETFs that pay dividends at month-end, it can build a refined dividend system that allows investors to receive dividends twice a month.

Hyunwook Moon, a manager at Samsung Asset Management, said, "With the full-fledged money move effect this year, it will be a time when domestic dividend stock investment strategies are more important than ever." He added, "Separate taxation of dividend income applies only to dividends from individual companies for a limited three-year period, and investors need to be aware that distributions from collective investment schemes are excluded from separate taxation of dividend income regardless of inclusion of high-dividend stocks."