KOSPI Ushers in 2,500 Era

Two-thousand and seventeen will be remembered as a year in which the benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index(KOSPI) wrote new history.

The Korea Exchange said that the date when KOSPI stood at the lowest level this year was January second, meaning the figure has steadily surged from the beginning of the year.

By monthly standards, KOSPI saw growth of eight consecutive months between last December and this July, posting a new record.

On May fourth, KOSPI broke the two-thousand-220 threshold for the first time in six years after it closed at two-thousand-241-point-24. Since then, it continued to rise and went beyond the two-thousand-300 mark for the first time also in May. In July, it topped two-thousand-400 and finally surpassed two-thousand-500 in October.



Improved business performance resulting from brisk exports was the main cause for the surge in KOSPI. In particular, thriving performances by semiconductor companies attributed to the rise. Shares of Samsung Electronics jumped more than 40 percent and shares of SK Hynix surged 70 percent.

KOSPI saw its growth rate surpass 20 percent this year, placing South Korea fifth among 20 countries in terms of best-performing key stock price index, a sharp jump from 2016, when South Korea ranked 14th.

The tech-heavy KOSDAQ was sluggish up until the third quarter but in the fourth quarter, it posted strong growth. As a result, its annual growth rate also topped 20 percent.

Photo : Yonhap News, KBS News

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