Kospi exceeds briefly 2,000-mark in two and a half months

South Korean benchmark Kospi has shown an upward trend for five consecutive days in a row, briefly rising over 2,000 points for the first time in two and a half months. As Kospi has reached the 2,000-mark again since its fall due to the global pandemic of COVID-19, the financial market is deemed to have recovered from the shock of COVID-19 to a degree.

Kospi rose 0.44 percent on Thursday from the previous day closing at 1998.31 points after dipping in and out of the 2,000-mark during market hours. This is the first time that Kospi has gone over 2,000 points during market hours and the second-highest closing price since March 6. Meanwhile, KOSDAQ closed at 716.02 – the highest mark this year – with a 1.02 percent increase from the previous day after rising for three consecutive days.

Kospi first began its downward trend with a 4.19 percent drop on March 9 and was as low as 1,457.64 on March 19. Growing concerns about the COVID-19 spread and competitive oil production increase between Saudi Arabia and Russia have led to the collapse of global stock markets, including South Korea, the U.S., and Europe.

However, Kospi seems to have mostly recovered from the stock market fall due to COVID-19 as the benchmark rose over 2,000 points on Thursday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average of the U.S. has also recovered to the pre-March 9 level with a 1.52 percent increase on Wednesday (local time). The Nikkei 225 of Japan is also continuing the bullish trend by reaching the 20,000-yen-mark on Tuesday.

Such a bullish trend of Kospi is being led by individual investors who net purchased around 291 billion won in the securities market on Thursday. Foreign investors also bought 74 billion won continuing the net-purchase trend for three consecutive days while institutional investors sold 390 billion won.


Gun-Huk Lee gun@donga.com