The companies listed on the KOSPI Index of the Korea Exchange paid cash dividends totaling 20.9 trillion won in 2016, up 9.5 percent from the preceding year. A total of 522 listed firms, or 72 percent of 725 firms whose fiscal year ended on Dec. 31, paid the dividends, the Korea Exchange said.
An increasing number of listed firms have been paying dividends every year, setting a new trend in the stock market in the past several years. The dividend stood at 11.1 trillion won in 2012, doubling in five years.
The percentage of the dividend in the past two years came to 1.8 percent of share value, exceeding the annual yield from bonds, which came to 1.433 percent, showing that investment in shares have given a better return to the investors. More than 270 firms among the 522 listed firms that paid dividends had their dividends exceed the investment return from government bonds.
The KRX, in the meantime, signed an MOU on April 7 to cooperate on setting up a stock market in Turkmenistan. Vice Chairman Ahn Sang-hwan of KRX signed for the Korean side while President Akmyrat Danatarov signed for the Turkmenistan side. The signing took place at the office of the Ashgabat (AGB) stock exchange in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan.
The two organizations will cooperate each other on various events such as holding a workshop and setting up a stock market under the MOU. Vice Chairman Ahn said he hopes that the MOU will facilitate the two stock exchanges to be partners in the future, not just on matters related to stock market operation. He expects the KRX to deliver to Turkmenistan its valuable knowledge and experience of running a stock exchange. It also wants to advance into the IT infrastructure projects in the Central Asian country to expand “financial Hallyu” in Central Asia.
The Korea Exchange (KRX) has been hard at work to boost the position of its stock market through digital reform, securing its lead in the global stock market with its own unique competitive power.
The stock market has also been making huge investments in the domestic capital market to develop a reformed financial market platform by strengthening the traditional capital market functions so that the market could be more effective and stable for participants. The stock market has also been pushing digital strategies based on changes in both domestic and overseas stock markets.
Chairman Chung Chan-woo said the KRX will mix key Fintech with the stock market operation, including AI Big Data and Blockchain, to develop new stock market operational models in tune with the new stock market reform. Chung wants to position the KRX so it joins the fourth industrial revolution, which is on the way.
The stock market in Korea has more individual investors than any other major stock market in the world, making it more liable to be swayed by rumors and false information due to a lack of facilities to clear out rumors and false information. Therefore, there have been outcries for a system to watch out for such rumors and false information and clean them out. The demand for such a system has been rising, with the growing influence of online information exchange apps such as Kakao Talk and Naver Band.
The stock exchange plans to unveil its systems by 2018. Under the current system, the Market Watch Dep’t analyzes stock trades that appear to be questionable and report them to financial authorities like the Financial Services Commission (FSC) and the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) if they found those stock trades to be unfair.
The stock exchange’s system to prevent price fixing will rely on AI and Big Data.
The only securities exchange in Korea, the KRX recently launched a blockchain-based marketplace where equity in startup companies can be traded, called the Korean Startup Market (KSM).
The exchange first announced the upgrades in February, releasing a few details during the 12th annual Korean FinTech Demo Day in October. At that event, the exchange stated a commitment to upgrading their trading engine, along with plans to test it by adding non-listed securities.
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