KOSPI Grows 174% During Roh’s Tenure

By Park Hyong-ki

Staff Reporter

The Seoul stock market was most bullish during the Roh Moo-hyun administration over the past five years, recording the highest increase.

According to the Korea Exchange, the KOSPI grew 173.65 percent from Feb. 25, 2003, to Feb. 22, 2008.

Upon President Roh's inauguration, the benchmark index was at 616.29, but finished up at 1,686.45 last Friday.

The growth rate is much higher than the 13.94 percent recorded during the former Kim Dae-jung administration, or the 19.61 percent drop during President Kim Young-sam's tenure.

The exchange attributed the bullish gains to ample liquidity stemming from low interest rates globally and economic recovery efforts, which elated investor sentiment on the market.

Under Roh, the stock market constantly hit record highs, reaching as high as 2,060 in the fourth quarter of last year on strong fundamentals and improved corporate balance sheets. However, toward the end of last year, stocks took a big dive on subprime mortgage woes.

A wide range of stocks on the main bourse ranging from machinery to steel and transportation saw high gains, benefiting from fast economic growth of China, the country's top export destination. A total of 21 stocks enjoyed high mark ups on the market with machinery shares posting the biggest increase at 800 percent, followed by construction at 651 percent. Tech shares performed the poorest, only gaining about 11 percent on sluggish chip sales.

The market capitalization of the KOSPI and the tech-heavy Kosdaq markets also surpassed 1,000 trillion won.

Of the top 10 conglomerates, the market cap of Hyundai Heavy Industries posted the highest growth of 2,006 percent. Kumho Asiana, Hanwha and GS followed next in terms of equity growth.

Shares of Samsung, the country's No.1 chaebol, grew 128 percent; those of the Hyundai Automotive Group gained 177 percent; while SK companies posted a combined growth of 144 percent.

The market cap of the top 10 accounted for 41 percent of the total market capitalization, down 1.3 percentage points from five years ago, indicating that the stock market is becoming less reliant on family-run groups for growth.

phk@koreatimes.co.kr