On July 30, according to Yonhap News, the Korea Exchange conducted an internal review on July 29 of the technical feasibility and system requirements for temporarily banning short selling and reducing the price limit (currently 30%), in response to recent severe volatility in the stock market. A person familiar with the matter said, "It only confirmed technical feasibility," emphasizing that it was not a step toward implementation, but rather a review among available contingency measures. Recently, the Korean stock market has been in a sustained decline, aggravating losses for individual investors. During a meeting of the National Assembly's Steering Committee, multiple lawmakers urged authorities to consider a temporary ban on short selling and restarting the securities market stabilization fund. A national petition to suspend short selling garnered over 10,000 approvals within two days of its public release. However, banning short selling conflicts with South Korea's goal of being included in the MSCI Developed Markets Index, as a previous 17-month short selling ban from November 2023 to March 2025 led MSCI to downgrade South Korea's market accessibility rating. The Korea Exchange officially stated that it had not received any related request from the government and had not formally discussed a short selling ban.
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