The total value of the South Korean stock market has surpassed 1,400 trillion won ($1.27 trillion) on the back of new share listings and a recent rally in the tech-laden KOSDAQ, the Seoul bourse operator said Thursday.
The combined market capitalization of the main KOSPI, secondary KOSDAQ, and KONEX, a third market for start-ups, rose to 1,414.2 trillion won as of Tuesday, up 9.8 percent from a year earlier, according to the Korea Exchange. It has also risen by 5.8 percent this year.
It took four years for the Korean equity market to add 100 trillion won since it broke the 1,300 trillion won mark, in stark contrast to its heydays in the early 2000s when the market broke the record monthly.
The recent rise came as leading tech and bio stocks in the KOSDAQ drew money from home and abroad this year, closing at a nearly seven-year high of 630.35 on Wednesday. Its market value also rose to a high of 167.3 trillion won, up 30.4 percent from a year ago.
The KOSPI also surpassed 2,000 points on the back of an influx of offshore funds. Its market capitalization inclined by 7.4 percent on-year to 1,158 trillion won on Tuesday, near to its record high of 1,250 trillion won in May 2011.
The market cap of the KONEX, a third bourse launched in June 2013, is 1.8 trillion won, it said. (Yonhap)
