The Korea Composite Stock Price Index or KOSPI () is the index of all

common stock Common stock is a form of corporate equity ownership, a type of security. The terms voting share and ordinary share are also used frequently outside of the United States. They are known as equity shares or ordinary shares in the UK and other C ...

s traded on the Stock Market Division—previously, Korea Stock Exchange—of the

Korea Exchange Korea Exchange (KRX, ) is the sole securities exchange operator in South Korea. It is headquartered in Busan, and has an office for cash markets and market oversight in Seoul. History The Korea Exchange was created through the integration of K ...

. It is the representative

stock market index In finance, a stock index, or stock market index, is an Index (economics), index that measures the performance of a stock market, or of a subset of a stock market. It helps investors compare current stock price levels with past prices to calcul ...

of South Korea, analogous to the

S&P 500 The Standard and Poor's 500, or simply the S&P 500, is a stock market index tracking the stock performance of 500 leading companies listed on stock exchanges in the United States. It is one of the most commonly followed equity indices and in ...

in the United States. KOSPI was introduced in 1983 with the base value of 100 as of 4 January 1980. It is calculated based on market capitalization. As of 2007, KOSPI's daily volume is hundreds of millions of shares, valued at trillions of won.

History

KOSPI was introduced in 1983, replacing the Dow-style KCSPI (Korea Composite Stock Price Index). For years, KOSPI moved below 1,000, peaking above 1,000 in April 1989, November 1994, and January 2000. On 17 June 1998, KOSPI recorded its largest one-day percentage gain of 8.50% (23.81 points), recovering from the bottom of the

Asian financial crisis The 1997 Asian financial crisis gripped much of East and Southeast Asia during the late 1990s. The crisis began in Thailand in July 1997 before spreading to several other countries with a ripple effect, raising fears of a worldwide economic meltd ...

. On 12 September 2001, KOSPI had its largest one-day percentage drop of 12.02% (64.97 points) just after

9/11 The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into ...

. On 28 February 2005, KOSPI closed at 1,011.36, plunging to 902.88 in April. However, unlike previous

bull trap In stock market trading, a bull trap is an inaccurate signal that shows a decreasing trend in a stock or index has reversed and is now heading upwards, when in fact, the security will continue to decline. It is seen as a trap because the bullis ...

s, it kept moving upward, breaking the long-standing 1,000-point resistance level. In November 2005, the index's Korean name was officially changed to ''Koseupi jisu'' (코스피지수). On 24 July 2007, KOSPI broke 2,000 level for the first time. On 25 July it closed at 2,004.22. On 20 August 2007, the index recovered 93.20 (5.69%), its largest one-day point gain, after the U.S. Federal Reserve lowered the discount rate. On 16 October 2008, the index dropped 126.50 (9.44%), after the

Dow Jones Industrial Average The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA), Dow Jones, or simply the Dow (), is a stock market index of 30 prominent companies listed on stock exchanges in the United States. The DJIA is one of the oldest and most commonly followed equity indice ...

dropped 7.87%. On 23 November 2020, the index broke the record set in 2018 for the first time at 2,602.59 points, after the coronavirus pandemic of 2020 plunged the KOSPI to a low in March.

Record values

Starting from February 24, 2020, the index dropped continuously during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. As of March 15, the KOSPI closed at 1,771.44, prompting the Financial Supervisory Commission to impose a six-month ban on short-selling, the first such drastic action in nearly nine years.

Milestones

The following is a timeline showing the rise of the KOSPI over the course of Korean stock market history.

Annual Returns

The following table shows the annual development of the KOSPI since 1981.

Components

As of February 2024, KOSPI has over 880 components. As of March 2025, the top 10 stocks by market capitalization are:

Other indices

* KOSPI 200, KOSPI 100, and KOSPI 50 * LargeCap, MidCap, and SmallCap indices based on

market capitalization Market capitalization, sometimes referred to as market cap, is the total value of a publicly traded company's outstanding common shares owned by stockholders. Market capitalization is equal to the market price per common share multiplied by ...

* KOGI corporate governance index * KODI dividend index * Industry indices like chemicals, electrical & electronic equipments, transport equipment, or banks. * KRX 100 and other KRX indices which take into account both stock markets of Korea Exchange (KRX) — Stock Market Division and

KOSDAQ The Korean Securities Dealers Automated Quotations (KOSDAQ; ) is a trading board of Korea Exchange (KRX) in South Korea established in 1996. Initially set up by Korea Financial Investment Association as an independent stock market from the Korean ...

Division

KOSPI 200

The KOSPI 200 index consists of 200 big companies of the Stock Market Division. The base value of 100 was set on 3 January 1990. It has over 70% market value of the KOSPI, and so moves along with the KOSPI index. KOSPI 200 is important because it is listed on

futures Futures may mean: Finance *Futures contract, a tradable financial derivatives contract *Futures exchange, a financial market where futures contracts are traded *''Modern Trader'', formerly Futures, an American finance magazine Music * ''Futures' ...

and option markets and is one of the most actively traded indices in the world. The KOSPI is calculated as current market capitalization (at the time of comparison) divided by base market capitalization (as of 4 January 1980). That is: Current index = Current total market cap of constituents × 100 / Base Market Capitalization KOSPI 200 weighting methodology via Wikinvest Its all-time low is 31.96, reached on 16 June 1998, during the financial crisis. It closed above 200 for the first time on 24 April 2007. Kospi 200 futures (ticker symbol KOS) are traded on the Korean Futures Exchange. Contracts are quoted in index points with each contract size valued at 250,000 index points. CQG contract specifications for the kospi 200 can be found in the table below.

KRX 100

KRX 100 is the index of 100 companies listed on Korea Exchange, including KOSDAQ's big companies. It's meant to replace KOSPI 200 as the key futures index, but has not been very successful to date.

KRX derivatives products

*Stock Index Products: KOSPI 200 Futures, KOSPI 200 Options, STAR Futures *Individual Equity Products: Individual Equity Futures, Individual Equity Options *Interest Rate Products: 3-Year Korea Treasury Bond Futures (KTB3), 5-Year Korea Treasury Bond Futures (KTB5), 10-Year Korea Treasury Bond Futures (KTB10), MSB Futures *Currency Products: USD Futures, USD Options, Japanese Yen Futures, Euro Futures *Commodity Products: Gold Futures, Lean Hog Futures

Investment procedures for foreigners

To trade futures and options contracts listed on KRX, a foreign investor may designate

custodian bank A custodian bank, or simply custodian, is a specialized financial institution responsible for providing securities services. It provides post-trade services and solutions for asset owners (e.g. sovereign wealth funds, central banks, insurance comp ...

s as standing proxies (through custodian bank agreements and standing proxy agreements to facilitate trading). A custodian bank as a standing proxy opens accounts at foreign exchange banks and futures companies, deposits, and withdrawals investors' money and monitors investors' properties for them. A foreign investor should designate foreign exchange banks through a foreign currency exchange agreement to execute his foreign exchange transactions and transfers. Most foreign exchange banks also do custodian bank and standing proxy operations. A foreign investor should designate securities and futures companies to trade futures and options traded on KRX.

References

External links

Guide to KOSPI
KRX. * KOSPI 200 Profile via Wikinvest
Bloomberg page for KOSPI:IND

Data

Korea Exchange: KOSPI
{{Asian Stock market indices Korea Exchange Finance in South Korea South Korean stock market indices Asian stock market indices