South Korea’s stock market capitalisation, which has extended a record rally including reaching the long-sought “KOSPI 5,000,” has been confirmed to have overtaken Taiwan after recently surpassing Germany.

According to the Korea Exchange (KRX) information data system on Saturday, total market capitalisation of the KOSPI, KOSDAQ and KONEX markets stood at 4,799.4 trillion won at the close on Friday.

That slightly exceeds Taiwan’s stock market capitalisation at the close on Friday of 103.6207999 trillion Taiwan dollars, equivalent to 4,798.7 trillion won, as disclosed by the Taiwan Stock Exchange on the same day.

World Federation of Exchanges (WFE) data showed that as of last December, when the market value of 89 stock exchanges worldwide was converted into dollars for comparison, the Korea Exchange ranked 13th among global exchanges.

At the time, the world’s top exchange by market value was Nasdaq at 37.5 trillion dollars. The New York Stock Exchange was second at 31.4 trillion dollars, and China’s Shanghai Stock Exchange was third at 9.3 trillion dollars.

They were followed by Euronext at 7.8 trillion dollars, Japan Exchange Group at 7.6 trillion dollars, China’s Shenzhen Stock Exchange at 6.2 trillion dollars, Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing at 6.1 trillion dollars, India’s BSE at 5.2896 trillion dollars, India’s NSE at 5.2699 trillion dollars and Canada’s TMX at 4.6 trillion dollars.

Taiwan Stock Exchange was 11th at 3.0 trillion dollars and Deutsche Boerse was 12th at 2.8986 trillion dollars. Korea Exchange market capitalisation was put at 2.7566 trillion dollars, or about 4,034.4 trillion won.

Grouped by country or region rather than by exchange, South Korea’s stock market capitalisation ranked 10th in the world at the end of last year, behind the United States, China, the European Union, Japan, Hong Kong, India, Canada, Taiwan and Germany.

South Korean stocks have continued to rally since the start of the year, rapidly narrowing the gap with other major stock markets centered on advanced economies.

KOSPI and KOSDAQ have jumped 20.8 percent and 16.8 percent from the end of last year, showing the top and third-highest gains, respectively, among key benchmark indices. South Korea’s stock market capitalisation rose 20.39 percent over the period.

Over the same period, returns on Germany’s DAX30 and Taiwan’s Taiex were far lower at 0.94 percent and 9.73 percent, leaving them overtaken by South Korea in turn.

According to U.S. investment information media GuruFocus, Germany’s stock market capitalisation, which was caught up by South Korea earlier last month, is estimated at 2.40155 trillion euros as of Friday, equivalent to about 4,154.8 trillion won, suggesting the gap with South Korean shares is widening further.

The securities industry still expects the expansion of South Korea’s stock market to continue for some time.

Although global markets, including KOSPI, struggled last week due to shocks from margin calls in gold and silver futures and renewed debate over the profitability of artificial intelligence, forcing KOSPI to give back part of its recent gains, experts broadly diagnose that it largely reflected short-term profit-taking and digestion of selling pressure.

In fact, U.S. stocks rose on the last trading day of last week, with all three major indexes gaining, showing signs of shaking off prior concerns.

Against that backdrop, brokerages are racing to raise their projected trading ranges for KOSPI this year.

Early this month, global investment bank JP Morgan said it was raising its base-case target for KOSPI to 6,000 and its bull-case target to 7,500, drawing attention.

Among domestic brokerages, NH Investment & Securities recently raised its 12-month KOSPI target from 5,500 to 7,300.

Jung Eun-bo (정은보), chairman of the Korea Exchange, said at a recent New Year news conference, “From the perspective of comparing with major markets, I think there will not be a big problem in getting past 6,000 (for KOSPI).”

[Yonhap News Agency]