The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) surpassed the three-thousand mark for the first time this year. The driving force behind this was local small investors.

After breaking the three-thousand mark during trading on January 6, the KOSPI ended trading the following day at three-thousand-31-point-68. This came 65 years after the local bourse launched in 1956 and 38 years after the KOSPI index was introduced on January 4, 1983.

The KOSPI surpassed the one-thousand mark on March 31, 1989, then the two-thousand mark on July 25, 2007. It took 18 years to go from one-thousand to two-thousand, and another 14 years from two-thousand to three-thousand.

While the KOSPI plunged below one-thousand-500 in March 2020, due to market panic from the COVID-19 crisis, local investors began driving the index upward. The trend continued in 2021.

This year, low interest coupled with abundant liquidity thanks to the government’s expansionary fiscal policy played a big part. While institutional and foreign investors posted a record net selling, individual investors maintained the KOSPI through a total net purchase of around 70 trillion won by early December.

Analysts said the era of three-thousand on KOSPI opened due largely to small investors, who witnessed rallies following drastic declines during the 1997 Asian financial crisis and the 2008 global financial crisis.

The KOSPI currently fluctuates around the three-thousand mark.

Photo : KBS, YONHAP News

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