Number of investors in Korea jumps more than 50 percent

The number of stock investors jumped nearly 49 percent in 2020 from a year earlier amid a strong market run, industry data showed Tuesday.

A total of 9.19 million investors held shares in 2,352 companies listed on the country's main and secondary bourses, up 48.5 percent from a year earlier, according to the data from the Korea Securities Depository.

Those investors owned a combined 99.1 billion shares, with per-capita holdings standing at 10,779 shares.

Retail investors in those firms closing their books in December numbered 9.1 million, or 99.1 percent of the total. Local corporate investors came to 31,000, with foreign individuals and corporations reaching 22,000.

The number of Kospi stocks were 774 last year, down 0.6 percent from the prior year, but the number of investors in those firms spiked 59 percent to 7.84 million.

The number of firms on the Kosdaq market gained 4.7 percent to 1,440, with the number of investors jumping 54.7 percent to 5.43 million.

By company, investors holding shares in top-cap Samsung Electronics were the largest at 2.96 million, followed by Hyundai Motor, with slightly more than 690,000, according to the data.

YONHAP