Kospi recovered over 2,000 points in 2.5 months

Kospi recovered beyond 2,000 points for the first time in two and a half months with over one percent increase. As countries around the world start to resume economic activities suspended due to COVID-19, key stock markets in Asia showed an upward trend.

Kospi closed at 2,029.78 on Monday with a 35.18-point increase from the previous day of trading. The South Korean benchmark increased over one percent for two consecutive days with a 1.24 percent increase on the previous day. This is the first time that Kospi closed at over 2,000 points since March 6. Samsung Electronics’ stock price increased 0.82 percent while top market cap stocks that experienced significant drops from the COVID-19 outbreak – SK Innovation, Samsung SDI, and LG Chemicals, for example – showed an especially strong upward trend.

Institutional investors led the bullish trend in the stock market by making purchases of 342 billion won while foreign investors also net purchased 10 billion won. Individual investors, however, net sold 481 billion won. Meanwhile, KOSDAQ also rose 9.22 points from the previous day to close at 729.11, remarking the highest figure this year.

The expectations for the normalization of economic activities as countries relax containment policies for COVID-19 were what drove up stock market prices. In Japan, Nikkei 225 rose 2.55 percent as a state of emergency was lifted earlier than expected. China’s SSE Composite Index also increased 1.01 percent reflecting expectations for the global economic recovery from COVID-19, not the growing tensions between the U.S. and China.


Gun-Huk Lee gun@donga.com