The Korean Securities Dealers Automated Quotations (KOSDAQ; ) is a trading board of
Korea Exchange (KRX) in
South Korea
South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...
established in 1996.
Initially set up by
Korea Financial Investment Association as an independent
stock market
A stock market, equity market, or share market is the aggregation of buyers and sellers of stocks (also called shares), which represent ownership claims on businesses; these may include ''securities'' listed on a public stock exchange a ...
from the Korean Stock Exchange, it was benchmarked from the American counterpart,
NASDAQ
The Nasdaq Stock Market (; National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations) is an American stock exchange based in New York City. It is the most active stock trading venue in the U.S. by volume, and ranked second on the list ...
. KOSDAQ is an electronic stock market, just like NASDAQ. The open hours for the market are 09:00AM to 03:30PM
KST.
It is now operated as SME Market Division of KRX. As of February 2021, 1476 companies are listed on KOSDAQ for trading.
History
In July 1986, The South Korean government passed the "Market Organization for Vitalization of Publicly Traded Assets for Small Businesses Act" in order to provide a way for small and intermediate businesses to raise capital through
publicly traded shares, and to provide investors with new routes of investments. In April 1987, the Market Organization was achieved, and the first three companies were registered.
On May 17, 1996, the KOSDAQ Securities Exchange (코스닥증권시장) was established in order to vitalize, modernize and fully computerize the market. KOSDAQ went into fully service on July 1, 1996.
During the
1997 Asian financial crisis
The 1997 Asian financial crisis gripped much of East Asia, 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 eco ...
, KOSDAQ market indexes plummeted and investors suffered heavy losses, but due to the quick recovery of the South Korean Economy, KOSDAQ saw rapid recovery and increase in market capitalization through the early 21st century.
See also
*
KOSPI
*
KOSPI 200
*
Korea Financial Investment Association
*
List of East Asian stock exchanges
This is a list of Asian stock exchanges.
In the Asian region, there are multiple stock exchanges. As of 2025, the top 10 major stock exchanges in Asia as per market capitalisation are listed below.
* Shanghai Stock Exchange, China
* Tokyo St ...
References
External links
KOSDAQ Listed Companies AssociationBloomberg page for KOSDAQ:IND
Korea Exchange
Finance in South Korea
Stock exchanges in South Korea
1996 establishments in South Korea
South Korean stock market indices
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