South Korea’s ‘ants’ drove many stocks to new highs

Article Excerpt

Driven by a retail trading frenzy, the Korea Exchange advanced by 120% from its bottom in March 2020 until mid-2021. Large, global companies, such as Samsung, Posco, LG Electronics, Hynix, and Hyundai, performed well, but more speculative stocks such as Celltrion, Kakao, and Seegene soared between 250% and 1,100% as retail investors engaged in frenzied day trading. The Korea Exchange is home to 2,448 companies with a market value of $2.6 trillion, about the same size as the Toronto Stock Exchange. The Korean market is also very liquid and ranks among the top 10 in the world in terms of value traded. Notably, almost two-thirds of trading on this exchange comes from retail investors. Retail investors (locally known as “ants”) became large-scale participants in Korean stocks during COVID-19 lockdown periods in 2020 to 2021. Last year saw a 49% jump in the number of people investing in domestic stocks to almost 10 million, or 20% of the population! Daily stock trading by local investors…