The Korean stock market has officially surpassed both Germany and Taiwan in market capitalization, a significant milestone achieved amidst a strong bullish rally that began earlier this year. As of February 6th, the combined market cap of the Korean stock market, KOSDAQ, and KONEX reached 4,799.3607 trillion won.
A Rising Force in Global Markets
Korea’s stock market is rapidly gaining prominence, now ranking among the top ten globally.
This figure slightly exceeds the Taiwan stock market capitalization of 4,798.6792 trillion won (based on the closing price on February 6th, as reported by the Taiwan Stock Exchange). Data from the World Federation of Exchanges (WFE), compiled as of December of last year, initially placed the Korea Exchange at 13th globally when comparing the market capitalization of 89 stock exchanges worldwide.
At that time, the NASDAQ led with a market capitalization of USD 37.5 trillion, followed by the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) at USD 31.4 trillion, and the Shanghai Stock Exchange (SSE) at USD 9.3 trillion. Euronext (USD 7.8 trillion), Japan Exchange Group (JPX, USD 7.6 trillion), China’s Shenzhen Stock Exchange (USD 6.2 trillion), the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (USD 6.1 trillion), India’s Mumbai Stock Exchange (BSE, USD 5.2896 trillion), the National Stock Exchange of India (NSE, USD 5.2699 trillion), and the Toronto Stock Exchange (TMX, USD 4.6 trillion) rounded out the top ten.
The Taiwan Stock Exchange held the 11th position (USD 3 trillion), while the German Stock Exchange was 12th (USD 2.8986 trillion). The Korea Exchange’s market capitalization was calculated at approximately USD 2.7566 trillion (roughly KRW 4,034.4 trillion) at the end of last year.
When considering market capitalization by country or region, Korea ranked 10th globally as of year-end, trailing the United States, China, the European Union (EU), Japan, Hong Kong, India, Canada, Taiwan, and Germany.
Strong Growth in 2024
However, the Korean stock market has experienced accelerated growth since the start of the new year, rapidly closing the gap with larger, more established markets. The KOSPI and KOSDAQ indices have surged by 20.8% and 16.8% respectively, compared to the end of last year, achieving the highest growth rates among major country indices.
This surge translated into a 20.39% increase in the overall Korean stock market capitalization during the same period. In contrast, Germany’s DAX30 index and Taiwan’s stock index saw more modest gains of 0.94% and 9.73% respectively, allowing Korea to overtake them.
What is driving the Korean stock market’s growth? The KOSPI and KOSDAQ indices have experienced significant gains, with increases of 20.8% and 16.8% respectively, since the beginning of the year.
Despite a slight dip last week, influenced by global market volatility related to margin calls on gold and silver futures and renewed debate surrounding the profitability of artificial intelligence (AI), experts largely attribute this to “short-term profit taking and digestion of gains.”
Earlier this month, JP Morgan announced it was raising its KOSPI basic scenario target to 6,000 and its bull market scenario target to 7,500, signaling continued optimism within the investment banking community.
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