Foreign investors say Korean research is hard to reach. In our archive, 86% of KOSDAQ companies drew no broker report
We matched 1,139 Korean broker reports (mostly 19 Aug to 26 Oct 2026) to the KRX listing. 248 of 1,753 KOSDAQ companies appeared, against 228 of 829 KOSPI listings. Six of KOSDAQ's ten largest drew none in our sample.
AI-assisted, human-reviewed sourcing. Figures are pulled programmatically from the official sources listed at the end of this article and checked by an editor before publication.
korean broker researchkosdaq analyst coveragekorea research accessforeign retail investors koreakorean stocks english researchkosdaq information gap
Korean press this week returned to a familiar complaint about foreign money: overseas retail investors want Korean stocks, but research on Korean companies is hard to reach, and hardest for smaller KOSDAQ names. Large investment banks have their own channels. Individuals abroad do not.
Foreign retail interest is measurable. Through omnibus accounts alone, foreign investors traded 5.8 trillion won of Korean stocks and net bought 2.2 trillion between 26 April and 15 May, the Seoul Economic Daily reported (how the omnibus account works).
How thin is the research those investors could read? We counted it in our own archive.
What we counted
Our archive holds 1,139 single-stock reports from 21 research houses, naming 496 subjects. Almost all of it (1,132 records) falls between 19 August and 26 October 2026. We matched every subject to the Korea Exchange listing of 23 October.
| KOSPI | KOSDAQ | |
|---|---|---|
| Companies listed* | 829 | 1,753 |
| Appeared in at least one report | 228 (27.5%) | 248 (14.1%) |
| Share of all 1,139 reports | 67.3% | 32.5% |
| Reports per company that appeared | 3.36 | 1.49 |
*Preferred-share lines and SPACs removed.
So 1,505 of 1,753 KOSDAQ companies (85.9%) drew no report in our sample. On KOSPI the figure was 601 of 829 (72.5%), but the KOSPI companies that did appear hold 90.0% of KOSPI market value. On KOSDAQ, the companies that appeared hold 38.9%.
Big names first, then a cliff
Attention follows size. Of KOSPI’s 100 largest companies, 88 appeared. Of the 329 smallest, 6 did.
KOSDAQ falls off earlier. Only 52 of its 100 largest companies appeared. Six of its ten largest by market value drew no report in our ten weeks: EcoPro BM, Jusung Engineering, Rainbow Robotics, HLB, Eo Technics and Sam Chun Dang Pharm. Below rank 500, 87 of 1,253 KOSDAQ companies appeared.
The ten most-written-about companies, all on KOSPI, took 144 reports (12.6%). The top 50 took 36.3%. At the other end, 268 companies drew exactly one report.
A quarter of KOSDAQ research did not come from brokers
Of the 370 KOSDAQ reports, 98 (26.5%) came from three houses that are not brokerages: the Korea IR Council (83) and two credit-information firms (15). For 82 KOSDAQ companies, these were the only reports in our sample. Without them, KOSDAQ’s count would fall from 248 companies to 166.
That matters for the policy debate. The proposals in the news, such as stronger disclosure of intellectual property and better information on KOSDAQ technology companies, are aimed at exactly this layer.
The language question
Every report in our archive is a Korean-language listing. We have not measured how many of these reports exist in English, so we make no claim about the English share. What we can say: the gap above is a gap in Korean, before any translation.
How to read this
Our archive is a sample of retail-board research, collected daily from a public research listing and broker websites. A company that did not appear drew no report in this sample. It may well be covered by analysts whose reports we did not collect, by institutional-only research, or by research outside our window. Read the numbers as how concentrated the visible research is, not as a census of coverage.
Statistics, not advice. Appearing or not appearing in broker research is neither a buy nor a sell signal.
Data: Analyst attention by sector (a larger earlier cut: 6,372 reports for January to August 2026) · Who holds Korean securities abroad. Related: Omnibus accounts and ETF access for foreign retail, a timeline · The 28 companies reporting this week are 62.8% of KOSPI · All of KOSDAQ is worth less than half of SK hynix · A third of Korea’s listed companies drew an analyst report this year · The most-covered Korean stock this month was LS Electric.
Data & Verification Notes
- Data as of
- Sources
- SeoulMarkets broker-research archive — Index of Korean single-stock broker reports, 29 June to 26 October 2026: 1,139 records, 21 research houses, 496 named subjects (archive/index/research.meta.json, generated 27 October 2026, 07:00 KST). 1,132 of the 1,139 records are dated 19 August or later. 1,065 records came from a public Korean-language portal research board and 74 directly from broker websites.
- Korea Exchange (KRX OPEN API) — KOSPI, KOSDAQ and KONEX daily stock trading, 23 October 2026, collected by SeoulMarkets: name, code, market and market capitalisation for 2,870 listings (940 KOSPI, 1,824 KOSDAQ, 106 KONEX).
- Seoul Economic Daily, 21 May 2026 — Foreign investors traded 5.8 trillion won and net bought 2.2 trillion won of Korean stocks through omnibus accounts from 26 April to 15 May 2026.
- Cross-checks
- All 496 named subjects were matched to a 23 October listing. 17 carried a sector prefix in brackets, which we removed; three were matched by hand: Fine M-tec and ImmuneOncia (listed under their Korean names), and Cowintech, since renamed Cowin Robotics (code 282880).
- Companies that appeared: KOSPI 228, KOSDAQ 248, KONEX 2 (478 in total). Reports: KOSPI 767 (67.3%), KOSDAQ 370 (32.5%), KONEX 2.
- Denominators: KOSPI 940 listings minus 111 preferred-share lines = 829. KOSDAQ 1,824 listings minus 3 preferred-share lines and 68 SPACs = 1,753. No preferred share appeared in the archive.
- Reports per appearing company: KOSPI 3.36, KOSDAQ 1.49. Median: KOSPI 2, KOSDAQ 1.
- Ten most-reported companies: 144 reports, 12.6% of 1,139. Top 20: 228 (20.0%). Top 50: 414 (36.3%). 268 of the 478 companies (56.1%) drew exactly one report.
- By size (23 October market value): KOSPI top 100, 88 appeared; KOSPI ranks 501 to 829, 6 of 329. KOSDAQ top 100, 52 appeared; KOSDAQ ranks 501 to 1,753, 87 of 1,253.
- KOSDAQ reports by non-brokerage houses: Korea IR Council 83, Seoul Credit Rating & Information 9, NICE Information Service 6 = 98 of 370 (26.5%). 82 KOSDAQ companies appeared only through these three.
- Listings that appeared hold 90.0% of KOSPI market value (4,582.2 trillion won) and 38.9% of KOSDAQ market value (425.8 trillion won) on 23 October.
- Excluded figures
- How many companies any Korean analyst covers. Our archive is a sample of retail-board research; a company that did not appear drew no report in this sample, which is not the same as no coverage.
- How many of these reports also exist in English. Every record in our archive is a Korean-language listing; we have not measured English versions.
- Reports from June to mid-August. Only 7 records predate 19 August, so this is in practice a ten-week sample, and days are uneven (1 to 67 records a day).
- Industry, strategy and macro reports that name no single company.
- This is not investment advice. Appearing or not appearing in research is not a signal to buy or sell.
- Instruments
- 247540, 036930, 277810, 028300, 039030, 000250
The full dataset behind these figures — every listed company, every row — is available to license. SeoulMarkets data for licence →
Not investment advice. SMarkets publishes data journalism for general information only. Nothing here is investment advice, a recommendation, or an offer to buy or sell any security — any investment you make is at your own risk and responsibility. Figures are derived from official public data sources and may be revised by the issuing agency. Verify independently before acting.
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