After seeing its Kospi Index hit a high of 2228 on 2 May, South Korea’s stock market has plummeted this month, falling 17 per cent: this equates to a 19 pe
After seeing its Kospi Index hit a high of 2228 on 2 May, South Korea’s stock market has plummeted this month, falling 17 per cent: this equates to a 19 per cent drop from May and a 12 per cent drop YTD amid growing concerns of global economic recovery. Anything over 20 per cent often signals the beginning of a bear market. Financial Services Commission Vice Chairman Shin Je Yoon said that the country would closely monitor global market movements and prepare “all policy steps needed” to bring stability. One such step was to ban equity short sales, with the FSC announcing that it would last until Nov 9 in what appears to be a bid to control volatility. Perhaps in response to FSC Chairman Kim Seok Dong’s call for domestic institutions to play a bigger role in containing the situation, Bloomberg reported that the National Pension Service planned to buy more stock this month than originally intended. Also, Korea Teachers Pension said it had bought 70billion won of stock and would consider buying more.
