Korean Securities Market’s Gain Ranks 12th This Year

The Korean securities market’s gain this year turned out to be above average among markets around the world.

According to the findings on the survey of the gains of 41 nations’ stock indices out of 43 nations conducted by a stock exchange from January 1st to 20th, the main Korean stock index ranked 12th by rising 6.25 percent. However, the Kosdaq index ranked 41st, one of the lowest, by falling 0.67 percent.

The highest stock market rate increase was 16.28 percent of Argentina, followed by Finland (13.41 percent), Indonesia (10.78 percent), and Austria (10.65 percent). In the Asian securities market, Hong Kong 5.39 percent (16th), Singapore 4.80 percent (20th) and Japan 3.99 percent (27th) showed a rather dull performance compared to Korea. Meanwhile, although the U.S. Nasdaq index rose by 6.84 percent, the Dow Jones index ranked only 37th by rising 1.40 percent.

Mi-Kyung Jung mickey@donga.com