Korea’s financial authorities are seeking to extend the daily trading session of the stock market by 30 minutes in the coming months. The closing time of the main and secondary bourses would be changed from the present 3 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.
The Finance Ministry is fine-tuning details with the Financial Services Commission and the Korea Exchange before unveiling the plan and implementation date. It seems the government is set to notify the public of a trading hours extension based on a road map to revitalize the stock market.
However, quite a few traders, including small investors, appear to be skeptical of the move’s effect in terms of vitalization and the growth of the KOSPI and KOSDAQ indexes. They question what the government’s intentions actually are.
Currently, investors are allowed to sell or buy their equities even after the regular session ends at 3 p.m., as there is after-hours trading between 3:10 p.m. and 6 p.m. They can also trade stocks before the market opens at 9 a.m. -- for an hour between 7:30 a.m. and 8:30 a.m. In summary, investors can already trade local stocks from 7:30 a.m.to 6 p.m.
As for the regular session only, major neighboring markets have shorter trading hours. Both South Korea and Australia offer six hours a day, followed by Hong Kong with 5 1/2 hours, Japan with five hours, Taiwan with 4 1/2 hours and China with four hours.
Without comparison of the Korea Exchange and Asia-Pacific region, officials are highlighting the longer daily sessions -- compared to Korea -- provided by the U.S. and some European bourses.
The financial authorities have to respond to speculation among some critics that policymakers’ true intention is collecting more securities transaction taxes. Simultaneously, brokerage firms could take more in service charges on buy or sell orders. In addition, there is a possibility that state pension funds, paid into by citizens, will be more frequently exploited as a tool to increase the government’s tax revenue.
If the authorities dismiss the allegations, they should explain the correlation between trading hours and the equity market’s development. Should an extension really be helpful to elevating the composite indexes, most small investors would call for the government to prolong the daily session by several more hours.
Before introducing the plan, policymakers should initially resolve the backlash from the workers’ union of the Korea Exchange, which opposes the extension scheme, citing difficulties including the provision of workforce for monitoring.
More significantly, the authority needs to be prudent in an introduction. It would not be late even if it postpones the implementation for sufficient deliberation by holding a series of public hearings with professors and private analysts.
In June 2015, the local market implemented a revised system to allow stocks to rise or fall daily by up to 30 percent of their previous closing prices, compared with the previous 15 percent limit. Though the authority said the move was aimed at market reinvigoration, the effect has been minimal so far.
Several years ago, the FSC said it would create Goldman Sachs-like big investment banks in the nation. The project has yet to accomplish much.
