According to South Korean media reports, while the KOSPI index barely held above the 6,000-point mark, the scale of South Korean investors borrowing money to speculate in stocks has risen to its highest level in nearly three months. Data released by the Korea Financial Investment Association on the 13th showed that as of the 12th, the balance of margin trading, an indicator of the scale of leveraged trading by investors, increased by 477.3 billion won from the previous trading day, reaching 34.2886 trillion won. This figure is the highest since July 15th (34.3701 trillion won). Previously, with the continued slump in the South Korean stock market, the balance of margin trading had fallen to around 27 trillion won in early August. Subsequently, the indicator resumed its upward trend, recently remaining around 33 trillion won.
At the same time, the balance of ultra-short-term financing transactions, where investors borrow funds through securities companies and must settle within two trading days, reached 1.0634 trillion won, exceeding 1 trillion won again after six trading days. The amount of margin trading that resulted in forced liquidations due to investors' failure to repay debts on time reached 27 billion won, a surge of over 20 billion won from the previous trading day's 6.3 billion won.
The market believes that the increase in margin trading balances may be due to the KOSPI index's sharp drop of 3.65% on the 12th, marking its largest single-day decline in a month, prompting individual investors to buy on dips through margin trading. On the 12th, South Korean individual investors made net purchases of 1.4674 trillion won during regular trading hours on the South Korean stock market.
