Section
Equities
Listed Korean stocks, indices, ETFs and equity derivatives.
After Korea's Q3 results, brokers cut 19 target prices and raised 5. All 135 new targets sit above the share price
24 Korean companies reported Q3 results on 26–29 October. In the 138 broker reports that followed: 19 target cuts, 5 raises, 32 unchanged. The lowest new target was 22% above the 29 October close. Every rating given but one was Buy.
Korean dividends: the record date can now come after the amount. How it works, with SK hynix's 20,000 won
Buyers of Korean shares once had to own them before knowing the dividend. Rules changed in 2023 and 2024. SK hynix's Q3 payout shows the steps: announced 28 October, record date 30 November, last day to buy 26 November.
Korean stock target prices: none of 315 companies trades above its median broker target. How to read the gap
On 29 October 2026 we set each Korean company's median broker target against its close. Of 315 with both, none traded above the median. The typical target was 1.63 times the price; for 314, even the lowest was above it.
The 19 target-price cuts after Korea's Q3 results, one by one. HD Hyundai Electric took five, LG Innotek the deepest
Of 56 post-results reports we could compare with the same broker's earlier target, 19 were cuts on 11 companies, averaging −19.4%. The deepest: Kiwoom on LG Innotek, from 1,100,000 to 600,000 won. All kept a Buy rating.
Samsung made a record 107.4 trillion won in Q3 and its shares fell 4.1%. Six of eight brokers kept their targets
Samsung's full Q3 results on 29 October: 107.4 trillion won of operating profit, 106.5 trillion from chips. The shares closed at 232,000 won, down 4.13%. Next day, eight brokers kept six targets, cut one and raised one.
SK hynix made 83.3 trillion won in Q3 and its shares rose 14% in two days. Brokers' new targets: two cuts, one raise
Eleven broker reports followed SK hynix's record quarter. Targets run from 2.64 million to 4.0 million won, a median of 3.175 million, 2.08 times the 29 October close of 1,526,000. Two brokers cut, one raised, four held.
Can foreign retail investors buy Korean stocks and ETFs without a Korean account? The omnibus account timeline
Korea's omnibus account lets an overseas broker trade Korean shares for its clients in one account. A 2025 guideline opened it up; ETFs and ETNs were added from 15 September 2026, leveraged and inverse products excluded.
When do Korean companies report quarterly earnings? The 45-day rule, preliminary results and this week's 28
Korean law gives listed companies 45 days after a quarter ends to file a quarterly report. Many announce far earlier with preliminary results. For Q3 2026, Samsung did it on day 8; this week's 28 reporters on days 26 to 30.
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.
Korean preferred shares: 111 on the KOSPI, a median price of 75% of the common, and 36 that trade above it
Korean preferred shares usually trade at a discount to the common. We measured all 111 on the KOSPI: the median sells at 0.748 times its common. None of the 29 worth 100 billion won or more trades above it; 36 small ones do.
The 28 companies reporting Q3 this week are 62.8% of KOSPI's market value. Two of them are 50.8%
KOSPI closed Monday at 5,469.47, its lowest since April, ahead of Korea's biggest earnings week. We weighed the 28 reporters by market value: Wednesday and Thursday carry 58.3% of the whole market. The other 26 companies add 12.0%.
Samsung Electronics' preferred shares fell 14.0% in October, the common 19.7%. The gap is the narrowest in 38 sessions
Samsung reports full Q3 results on Thursday after a preliminary 107.4 trillion won operating profit. In October the preferred went from 72.7% of the common's price to 77.9%, peaking at 78.4%, the highest in our record since 27 August.
SK hynix is 20% of KOSPI's market value but 25% of its October trading. It reports Q3 on Wednesday
SK hynix's share of KOSPI market value fell from 23.0% to 20.4% between 30 September and 23 October. Its share of trading did not: 77.4 trillion of 309.3 trillion won, more than Samsung Electronics on 10 of 15 days.
KOSDAQ fell 3.26% on Monday. All 1,824 KOSDAQ listings together are worth less than half of SK hynix
KOSDAQ closed at 727.21, a three-month low. On Friday its 1,824 listings were worth 425.8 trillion won; SK hynix alone was 932.8 trillion. KOSDAQ's share of trading fell from 35.6% to 25.1% in October.
Kia's two latest target prices are 165,000 and 260,000 won. Hyundai Mobis drew two cuts before Friday's results
Kia and Hyundai Mobis report Q3 results on 30 October 2026. In our broker list, Kia's two October targets are 95,000 won apart. Mobis got three reports: two cut to 750,000 and 570,000, one raised to 800,000.
28 Korean companies report Q3 results on 26–30 October. Eight of them drew no report in our broker list
Korea's earnings week runs from IBK and BNK on Monday to Kia and Hyundai Mobis on Friday. Our list of 710 broker reports holds 46 company reports on 20 of the 28. Targets were cut 11 times and raised 9 times. Every rating was Buy.
17 Korean company reports in a month put the exchange rate in their title. Three were on HD Hyundai Electric
Of 313 company reports Korean brokers published from 28 September to 23 October 2026, 17 named the exchange rate or a currency hedge in the title. Four cut the target; none raised it. Two of the companies report Q3 this week.
Which Korean brokers cut target prices and which held them? One month, ten houses, 281 targets
Across 710 Korean broker reports dated 28 September to 23 October 2026, 281 company reports carried a target. Daishin cut 10 of the 16 it could compare. Yuanta left 27 of 45 unchanged. Hanwha raised 9 of 14.
KOSPI sidecar and circuit breaker: what triggers them, and how often the index came close since August
A Korean sidecar pauses program orders for 5 minutes when KOSPI 200 futures move 5%; a circuit breaker halts trading for 20 minutes when the KOSPI falls 8%. In 44 sessions from 18 August, the KOSPI 200 swung 5% intraday on 6 days.
Samsung Electro-Mechanics drew more broker reports than SK hynix before Q3 results. Half were notes on its filings
Samsung Electro-Mechanics reports Q3 results on 28 October 2026. It drew six company reports in our broker list from 29 September to 20 October, the most of the 28 companies reporting this week. Three were comments on substrate filings.
Analysts cut target prices on HYBE, YG and JYP in October. All 15 reports still said Buy
Korean brokers published 15 reports on the four big K-pop agencies between 2 and 22 October 2026. Seven lowered the target price, none raised it, and every one rated the stock Buy. JYP's targets fell from 60,000 and 65,000 won to 50,000.
Two brokers halved their Hyundai Rotem target prices in two weeks. Neither stopped saying Buy
Eight Korean broker reports on Hyundai Rotem appeared between 7 and 21 October 2026. Yuanta cut its target from 300,000 to 150,000 won, LS from 330,000 to 155,000. All rated it Buy; targets now run from 150,000 to 200,000.
The KOSPI fell 19% in October. Korea's entertainment index rose 6.9%
From 30 September to 22 October the KOSPI dropped from 6,838 to 5,534. Over the same sessions the KOSPI entertainment & culture index went up from 789.29 to 843.55, and its KOSDAQ twin rose 2.4% while the KOSDAQ fell 10.7%.
KOSPI fell 2.4% over 19–22 October. KOSPI 200 construction rose 5.5% and pharmaceuticals 1.9%
From the close on 16 October to 22 October the KOSPI slipped from 5,668 to 5,534. Of 51 KOSPI sector and size indices, 9 rose. Medical & precision instruments fell 8.6%, chemicals 6.6% and metals 6.4%.
The most-covered Korean stock this month was LS Electric, not Samsung. 106 companies got a single report
A month of Korean broker research covered 172 companies in 313 reports. LS Electric drew nine; Samsung E&A, Samsung Biologics and Hyundai Rotem eight each. Samsung E&A got six target raises, LS Electric four cuts.
Samsung Electronics and SK hynix drew only eight broker reports in a month. Samsung targets run 460,000–610,000 won
Korea's two memory makers got four company reports each from 23 September to 24 October 2026. SK Securities doubled its Samsung target to 610,000 won; Daishin cut SK hynix from 3.9 million to 3.2 million.
The KOSPI has lost 19% in October. Its small-cap index has lost 4%
From 30 September to 22 October the KOSPI fell 19.1%. Large caps fell 20.1%, mid caps 8.1%, small caps 4.1%. Of 53 KOSPI-series indices, three rose: entertainment and culture (+6.9%), food and tobacco (+4.1%) and pharmaceuticals (+1.2%).
KOSPI is up 31% this year. KOSDAQ is down 17%. The split runs through healthcare
On 22 October the KOSPI was 31.3% above its 2025 close and the KOSDAQ 17.4% below it. Of 53 KOSPI-series indices, 34 are up for the year; of 39 KOSDAQ-series indices, 7. KOSDAQ 150 Healthcare is down 40.9%.
KOSPI rose on Friday while four in five of its stocks fell. Since late August, that is the rule, not the exception
The index gained 0.30% on 23 October as decliners beat advancers 716 to 173. Of 17 up days since late August, 9 had more fallers. The index is down 18.7% since 26 August; the median KOSPI stock, 6.9%.
Korea's fear gauge hit 55 on 15 October. Its futures market traded seven contracts that day
The VKOSPI, the volatility index for KOSPI 200 options, rose from 36.81 on 8 October to 55.38 on 15 October, the day the KOSPI fell 7.57%. On the Korea Exchange, VKOSPI futures traded between 0 and 84 contracts a day over 34 sessions.
As KOSPI slid in October, Korean analysts cut more target prices than they raised — and still said Buy
We counted every report in a month of Korean broker research. Over 15–23 October, target-price cuts outran raises 35 to 21, reversing late September's 10 to 3. Not one of the 728 reports said Sell.
Korean business segment reporting, by company size: the biggest disclose eight, the smallest disclose one
Half of 737 Korean listed companies report a single business segment. Among companies above $10bn in market value only 23% do — and their median is eight. Segment disclosure is not in the accounts tape; it is in the annual report text.
10 More Korean Rights Issues: One Diluted 17.3%, Another 61.6%
A fresh batch of filings, late August through mid-September: the largest raise (Samsung FN REIT, ₩97.7bn) diluted shareholders 17.3%. The second-largest (Heng Sheng Holding Group, ₩60.0bn) diluted them 61.6%. Not advice.
A 2021 Drama Licensing Deal Was Kept Secret for Five Years. The Embargo Just Ended.
Samhwa Networks signed a $5.6 million global streaming license for its drama Now, Showtime! in 2021 and was allowed to withhold the amount. The filing disclosing it, five years later, states why: the embargo period ran out.
A Coupang Robotics Contract Shrank by 40% — After the Work Was Done
CMES Robotics disclosed a ₩1.19 billion Coupang warehouse-automation contract as 17.2% of revenue. Its amendment, filed after the contract ended, revises it down to ₩713 million — 10.34% — the amount actually collected.
K3I's Buyer Has ₩5.8 Billion in Assets. It's Paying ₩21 Billion for Control.
J's Commerce, formed in 2018, is buying a 39.96% stake in K3I from the founder's family for ₩21 billion. Its own filed balance sheet shows ₩5.836 billion in total assets — far below the purchase price.
Namhwa Construction Amended a ₩7.68 Billion Contract — Only the Timeline Changed
Namhwa Construction's supply contract with Daegwang Community Credit Cooperative, worth 13.56% of revenue, was amended on 23 September. The filing states only the contract period changed — the amount did not.
Spear Won't Name Its Aerospace Customer. The Filing Still Gives Up 12%.
Spear disclosed an ₩11.58 billion special-alloy contract worth 12.1% of revenue. The counterparty is withheld, described only as a 'US global aerospace launch company' — but the amount and ratio are not.
Two Korean Companies Filed Share Cancellations the Same Day. One Retires Nearly 10% of Its Stock.
Intem and KTis both filed board-approved share cancellation decisions on 23 September. Intem is retiring 4.74% of its shares; KTis is retiring 9.76% — more than double the ratio, from already-acquired treasury stock in both cases.
Stretch the window from three years to five and Korea's unbroken-profit share falls from 45.3% to 37.7%
Of 2,049 Korean listed companies that filed a net profit in all five years from 2021 to 2025, 772 were profitable in every one. The same test over 2023–2025 passes 1,072 of 2,368 — the count moves with the window.
Hyundai Rotem's Taiwan Rail Contract Is 5.9% of Last Year's Revenue
A ₩344.5 billion supply contract with Taiwan's Taoyuan Department of Rapid Transit Systems runs through October 2034 — eight years, filed the same day as two other same-industry disclosures.
11.7% of Japanese listed filers reported a net loss. In Korea the figure is 38.2%
We now hold filed annual accounts for 3,672 Japanese listed companies alongside 2,709 Korean ones. On the most recent filing each side, the median Japanese filer earned an 8.0% return on equity; the median Korean filer earned 2.6%.
49.0% on KOSPI, 31.9% on KOSDAQ — and on KONEX we cannot count at all
Split Korea's five-year profit streaks by listing board and the market-wide 37.7% comes apart. KONEX gets no figure: only 6 of its 107 companies filed annual accounts in all five years.
2,198 of Japan's 3,672 listed companies close their books in March
2,198 of 3,672 Japanese listed filers have a March fiscal year-end. Those companies are also three times the size of the rest by median revenue, and report losses at half the rate.
SK Biopharmaceuticals Signed a 9% Supply Contract — With Its Own Subsidiary
The ₩63.3 billion deal names SK Life Science, Inc. as the counterparty, and the filing states the relationship: SK Biopharmaceuticals' own subsidiary. The filing ties it to XCOPRI, the company's US-marketed epilepsy drug.
A Korean Controlling Shareholder Crossed 51% in One Filing
Hantop's largest shareholder reported a 9.16-point jump to 51.56% on 8 September — one filing combining a related party's private-placement share purchase with a change to pledged loan collateral.
A Korean REIT Issued Two Convertible Bonds the Same Day. Together They're 8.13% Dilution.
Koramco Life Infra REIT's board approved two private convertible bonds on 21 September — same conversion price, same coupon, same maturity date — worth a combined 34 billion won and 8,308,894 potential new shares.
Cellid Raised 10 Billion Won by Diluting Shares 16 Percent
A single third-party placement filed today adds 4.8 million new Cellid shares to a base of 29.5 million — 16.26% dilution, with the company's own filing marking 9.999 billion of the roughly 10 billion won raised as general operating funds.
Four Korean Dilution Filings Landed in Three Weeks. One Tops 100 Percent.
Korea Advanced Materials issued two same-day, same-price convertible bonds worth a combined 20.62% dilution — the fourth of four unrelated dilution filings we checked from early September to today, ranging from 8% to 164%.
More Than Half of Korea's Material Filings Are Corrections of Earlier Ones
Of 816 material disclosures Korean listed companies filed in 28 days, 430 — 52.7% — are re-filings marked as corrections. Convertible bonds 72%, capital raises 65%, supply contracts 60%. Not advice.
One Korean Convertible Bond Is Worth 164% of the Company's Shares. A Second, Filed a Day Later, Is 13%.
THE CODI's board approved a 30 billion won convertible bond on 7 September that would create more shares than the company has outstanding — 163.75% dilution by its own figure — then a smaller bond the next day.
POSCO Holdings' Stake in Two Units Landed Right at the 50% Line, Same Day
Two 5%-ownership disclosures filed the same day show POSCO Holdings' stake falling to 50.01% in POSCO International and exactly 50% in POSCO DX — both crossing more than 15 percentage points down in a single filing.
An Analyst 'Leaderboard' We Called Ranked Turned Out to Be Alphabetical
We published an article calling an analyst Korea's '#1-ranked' by score. The rank field we read was sorting 74 names alphabetically, not by performance. We're correcting it and showing how we caught it.
A Company Paid a 9.6% Premium to Cancel a Convertible Bond It Had Sold Three Months Earlier
Emgen Solution sold a private convertible bond in June 2026. In September it bought the whole issue back for 9.6% over face value -- canceling 8.3% worth of potential dilution, 32 months before the bond was due.
One broker's target price fell 75 percent overnight. It was a stock split, not a downgrade.
Of 53 target-price revisions filed on September 21, one showed a 75% overnight cut. The company's shares had been split 4-for-1 five weeks earlier — the number was arithmetic, not a bearish call.
The Same Analyst Dataset That Mislabeled a Rank Would Also Let You Rank Firms on 3 Data Points
Grouping the September 18 analyst snapshot by brokerage firm gives averages from 16.7% to 54.2% accuracy. The lowest belongs to the firm of the analyst our earlier article wrongly called 'ranked #1' — driven by a three-person sample.
Samsung C&T's 1.83 Trillion Won Project Is a Construction Selection, Not Yet a Contract
Samsung C&T disclosed being chosen to build a 1.8275 trillion won Seoul redevelopment project -- 4.49% of its FY2025 revenue. The filing itself says the amount can still change and the actual contract has not been signed.
Seohee Construction's New Contract Is 29% of Last Year's Revenue. It Doesn't Start for 21 Months.
A single apartment contract filed today equals 28.93% of Seohee Construction's most recent revenue. Construction starts in June 2027 — and this exact contract type has fallen through for the company before.
Four Korean firms filed identical 'rumor unconfirmed' disclosures the same day. One stock fell, one rose.
Four Korean firms filed identical 'rumor unconfirmed' disclosures on September 18 — zero other days in our 17-day scan had any. Press reports say two of them moved in opposite directions.
One Korean private placement diluted shares by 80 percent. Another, by 106 percent.
NC& and Satoshi Holdings each filed third-party share placements this month. NC&'s new shares equal 79.7% of its prior count; Satoshi's new shares exceed its prior count outright, at 105.9%.
Three Korean companies announced buybacks on the same day. Only one will retire the shares.
Exem, Shinhung, and Handsome Corporation filed buybacks on September 18. Handsome's plan is 7-10x larger and the only one that also commits to cancelling the shares.
Zero Korean companies changed CEO or owner for 17 straight trading days. Then seven did, in one.
DART recorded zero CEO-change and control-change disclosures on 17 straight scanned days. On September 18, three companies replaced their CEO and four filed ownership-change corrections.
India's listed companies: credit-rating upgrades have outnumbered downgrades 3.6 to 1
Across 22,747 rating actions logged for NSE-listed and SME companies, 2,735 were upgrades against 762 downgrades — a first look at a market SeoulMarkets has not covered before.
Korea lists futures on 1,799 stocks. On one day, 333 of them traded.
One name took a third of the day's stock-futures volume. Five names took half of it; five out of six listed stock futures did not trade at all.
Korea's short-margin balance has fallen two-thirds from its 2023 peak
The balance of shares borrowed for short-margin trading stood at 31.3 billion won on September 2, 2026 — down 43.1 percent from a year earlier and less than a third of its February 2023 high of 94.0 billion won.
10 Korean-listed companies filed delisting-risk disclosures on one day
DART recorded delisting-risk disclosures from ten separately listed companies on September 18 — zero on any other day this week. We could not confirm why they clustered on this date.
Korea's #1-ranked stock analyst has a stated 0 percent accuracy score
Among 74 ranked analysts on a Korean brokerage-research leaderboard, 27 — more than a third, including the top-ranked name — carry a 0 percent accuracy figure. Rank score and accuracy correlate only loosely (r=0.72).
We graded 2,415 Korean listed companies on their own filings. The national power utility scored near the bottom.
SMarkets Grade, our balance-sheet score built from DART filings, places Korea Electric Power at SM8 — second-weakest of nine tiers — on 4.17x debt-to-equity and a 0.46 current ratio. Not a credit rating, not advice.
A 75-point stake vanished — and the filing didn't name who took over
Tongyang Life's Chinese owner reported selling its entire stake in one filing, the largest exit in our ledger of Korean ownership disclosures. Of the nine biggest full sell-outs we found, only three say a controlling shareholder changed.
Goldman's KOSPI upside went from 80% to 71.5%
Goldman Sachs kept its 12,000 KOSPI target unchanged. The 'upside' headline moved anyway — from about 80% to 71.5% — because two outlets, writing the same day, measured it against closes one 4.61% session apart.
A stock forecaster's low-end misses keep growing
A Korean outlet scores its own weekly KOSPI price forecasts against what actually happened. Three straight weeks: high forecasts stayed accurate, low forecasts missed by more each week — 2.89%, 6.61%, 8.10%.
Samsung Life's rumor answer: not confirmed, not denied
A news report said Samsung Fire and Samsung Life were buying large UK and US insurers. Samsung Life's own DART filing says only that it is reviewing investment targets — nothing decided. It has until October 2 to say more.
Samsung SDI's US battery JV cut its guaranteed debt 45% — the same year it turned its first profit
Samsung SDI cut its guarantee on StarPlus Energy's debt from $3.85bn to $2.11bn (−45.2%), the same filing showing the Stellantis battery venture's income swing from a ₩33.7bn loss in 2024 to a ₩123.1bn profit in 2025.
Cube Entertainment's co-CEO put ₩10bn into his own company — above market
Cube Entertainment filed a ₩10bn private placement, entirely to co-CEO Kang Seung-gon, its own largest shareholder. The price, ₩6,220, is 9.7% above the day's KOSDAQ close — the opposite of the discount typically seen in insider placements.
EcoPro BM's ₩886bn raise: 100% for an unnamed acquisition
EcoPro BM's rights issue creates 9,900,990 new shares at ₩89,500 — a 16% discount to the ₩106,500 close — diluting existing holders 9.2%. All ₩886.1bn raised is filed as 'business acquisition'; no target has been separately disclosed.
HYBE's operating profit was ₩49bn. One expense line was ₩295bn.
HYBE out-earned Korea's other three listed K-pop majors combined in FY2025 revenue — but posted the only net loss among them, ₩254.4bn. The swing traces to one filed line, six times the size of operating profit, that is never itemised.
JYP's 6.75% treasury stock hasn't moved since 2018 — traced to its 2013 listing
JYP Entertainment holds 6.75% of itself in treasury, far above the other five listed K-pop agencies checked. The count hasn't changed since a 2018 cancellation, and its own 5-year rule points back to JYP's 2013 backdoor listing.
HYBE alone is two-thirds of Korea's listed K-pop value
Korea's six listed K-pop agencies have a combined market value of ₩11.56 trillion. HYBE alone is 65.6% of that, more than the other five combined. A seventh name, CJ E&M, sits in DART's registry but filed and traded nothing in over a year.
Korea's margin debt hit a record. It moved to KOSPI.
Korea's margin loan balance hit a record ₩38.6 trillion on 24 June 2026, up 50% year-on-year. KOSDAQ's share fell from 48% in 2021 to 21% today — this year's leverage moved into large-cap KOSPI, not the smaller, speculative market.
KEPCO confirms ₩25tn power-prepay ask, terms unset
Korean outlets reported KEPCO asked Samsung Electronics (₩20tn) and SK Hynix (₩5tn) to prepay five years of power bills for chip-cluster grid buildout. KEPCO confirmed a proposal exists — amount, rate and timeline are still unset.
KOSPI hit 6,835.8, then fell 4% next day
A widely shared post said Korea's KOSPI closed at 6,835.8, up 0.23%. We checked it against the exchange's own data — it was exactly right, for that one day. The next session, the index dropped 3.99%.
35 Korean capital raises ranked 3 ways — size never predicted the outcome
This week we ranked 35 Korean capital-raising filings three ways — buybacks, rights issues, convertible bonds. In every single one, the size of the deal did not predict what it meant for existing shareholders.
KG Mobility's convertible bond dilutes shares 22%
Five Korean convertible bonds filed this week all pay 0% surface interest — the option to convert is the entire return. Potential dilution on conversion ranges from 1.0% to 22.0%, and it isn't the biggest raise that dilutes least.
Celltrion's biggest buyback won't cancel a share
Celltrion's ₩100.0bn buyback dwarfs eight others filed with Korea's regulator this week — and carries no cancellation clause. The three firms that do promise to cancel are the smallest on the list.
What Korea's pension's 107% return really measures
Korea's national pension reports a domestic-stock return of 107% for the first half of 2026. That number is real — and it does not mean Korean stocks doubled. Its label, money-weighted and provisional, is the whole story.
Samsung Biologics raised 300x more, diluted 11x less
Samsung Biologics' ₩3.00tn rights issue diluted shareholders 4.7%. PhionX raised 300 times less — and diluted 53.8%, eleven times more. Twenty-one filings this week show size doesn't predict dilution.
89 Sell calls in 12 years: Korean brokers' rating scale has no downside
Korean brokers issue tens of thousands of ratings and almost never say sell — 89 sell calls in twelve years. When a scale only points one way, what does a 'buy' actually tell you? We count the ratings and question the scale.
Korea's "biggest company" ranking measures hope, not output
Korea's largest-firm ranking is by market capitalization — a priced bet on the future, not what a company makes, employs, or earns. We call it capital intensity, not productivity. Here is why the ranking misleads.
Korea's rich list doesn't measure Lee Jae-yong. It measures KOSPI.
Samsung's Lee Jae-yong topped Korea's stock-wealth ranking at ₩25.88tn on 2 January 2026 — up 117% in a year. The gain was the market, not the man. So what does a ranking that doubles on a rally actually measure?
Korea lists 2,767 stock lines — fewer than that are actual companies
Korea's stock market has 2,767 stock lines — but 115 are preferred shares (one company, two tickers) and 134 didn't trade today. The company count is lower.
Only 12 of Korea's 160 stock indices are up since the June peak
The KOSPI is up 125% in two years — a headline that hides the turn. From the 22 June peak, 148 of 160 indices have fallen, the median down 19.3%. The rally was chips; the correction is everything else. As of 3 Aug 2026. Not advice.
One in twenty listed Korean stocks didn't trade a single share
Korea's market is a barbell. On both days we've measured, two stocks were about half of all trading while roughly one in twenty listed issues traded nothing at all. A crowded head, a silent tail. Not advice.
Most Korea market-cap rankings count Samsung twice — here is the list when you do not
Samsung Electronics is 29% of the Korean stock market and SK hynix 21% — nearly half between them. Most rankings count Samsung twice, because its preferred shares list separately, pushing the true tenth firm off the table.
Four stocks are half of Korea's entire stock market
Of 2,764 listed companies, the four biggest are 52% of all market value and the top ten are 60%. Samsung alone is a quarter. Meanwhile 1,822 KOSDAQ names together are just 7%. Korea's market is a few giants and a very long tail. Not advice.
KOSDAQ is 7% of the market's value but 16% of its trading
Value and trading are two different maps. KOSDAQ holds 7% of Korea's market cap yet did 16% of one day's trading — its shares turn over more than twice as fast as KOSPI's. And 137 listed companies didn't trade at all. Not advice.
Women are 57% of the workforce at Korea's apparel firms and 8% at its steelmakers
Across listed firms the median female share of staff is 24%. But it splits hard by sector — about 57% in apparel, film and retail, under 10% in steel, autos and construction. Where women work divides more than how many. Not advice.
Korea's market carries 20 times more value per worker in finance than in apparel
Divide a listed company's market value by its headcount and industries split hard: a finance worker carries a median 470m won, an apparel or car-parts worker about 20-30m — twentyfold apart. Capital intensity, not output. Not advice.
Five Korean firms filed share buybacks today. Only one is cancelling the shares.
Buyback plans worth up to about 18 billion won reached the regulator on a single day. But the step that actually shrinks the share count — cancellation — appears in just one of them, Fims. The rest keep the stock in the drawer. Not advice.
Women earn 75% of men's pay at low-paying Korean firms, 70% at the highest-paying
Rank listed companies by average pay and the gender gap widens as you climb. Firms paying under 50m won a head give women 75% of men's; those over 120m give 70%. A high-paying employer comes with a steeper ladder. Not advice.
At most Korean listed companies the boss has outlasted the workforce — often several times over
In seven of ten listed firms the chief executive has served longer than the average employee has worked there. The median CEO's tenure is 2.1 times the staff's, and a third run to three times or more. Not advice.
Korea's listed CEOs: the median has run the company eleven years, and hundreds far longer
Across filings for 2,455 listed companies, the median chief executive has served 11 years; 696 have led two decades or more, 77 over forty. We flag and exclude 148 whose reported tenure predates the company itself. Not advice.
Across Korea's listed companies, women's average pay is 73% of men's
Companies file average pay by gender. Across 2,720 listed firms the median woman's pay is 73.2% of the median man's, and four in ten sit below 70%. It is mostly a gap in who holds which job, not pay for the same work. Not advice.
Seventy-seven companies hold half of Korea's listed-market jobs
Across 2,790 listed companies that disclose headcount, 1.87 million people work. The ten largest hold 22% of them, the top hundred 55%, and just 77 firms account for half. The median listed company reports 160 employees. Not advice.
Korea's listed market spreads across 61 industries by count, but its value sits in one
No industry is more than 11% of listed companies — electronics leads at 320 firms, then machinery, publishing and pharma. Yet our index work put electronics at 60% of KOSPI's value. The company roster is broad; the money is not. Not advice.
Most of Korea's listed companies are young; nine are older than the republic
The median listed company was incorporated 27 years ago, four in ten within the last 25. But nine reach back over a century — banks and drugmakers whose filed founding dates land near 1900, before the Republic of Korea. Not advice.
Hiring more women does not narrow Korea's gender pay gap
You might expect firms with more women to pay women closer to men. They do not. From companies under 10% female to those over 60%, the median woman's pay holds near 73% of the man's — the gap barely moves with representation. Not advice.
A third of Korea's listed companies drew an analyst report this year — research piles on a short list
In our archive of 6,372 single-stock broker reports in 2026, 939 of 2,819 listed companies drew at least one. The busiest name drew 100; most drew none. It measures attention, not coverage, and is not advice.
Women hold about 7% of Korean listed-company board seats, and more than half of firms have none
Across 35,004 officers at Korea's listed companies, 7.2% are women. It splits by sector — 10.5% in health care, 4.2% in tech — and 56% of companies disclose no woman officer at all.
In Korea, the brokers that promise the most upside hit their targets the least
Score 19,495 broker targets against the stock a year on and a pattern appears: the more upside a house promised, the less often it was reached — a −0.46 correlation. Hanwha aimed for 45% and hit 17%; DB aimed 29% and hit 49%.
Korean brokers rate Buy 79.7% of the time, Sell just 0.06%
Across 6,372 broker reports in 2026 the market rated Buy on 79.7% and Sell on 0.06%. Of 13 houses that rated 200-plus reports, 10 issued no Sell at all. The Sell rate has sat near zero for over a decade.
Korea's sector leaders pay 1.2 to 1.43 times more than the rest
Split each sector into its market-cap leaders and the rest: the leaders pay 1.2 to 1.43 times more and mostly retain staff longer. But in heavy industry and finance they employ fewer women at the top. A size split, not a stock pick.
In Korea, finance pays about twice what tech does — and tech isn't even second
Take the median listed company's average pay in each sector. Finance sits at 116 million won a year, roughly double information technology's 58 million. IT holds half the market's value and pays in the middle of the pack.
Korean sector tenure vs. female share run a -0.68 correlation
Line up Korea's main listed sectors by how long people stay and by how many are women, and the two run opposite: a −0.68 correlation. Materials keeps people 8.6 years and is 13% women; health care keeps them 4.9 and is 40%.
How long each Korean industry keeps the people it hires, from 16 years down to under four
Listed companies file their workers' average tenure in their own annual reports. Weight it by headcount and rank Korea's 44 biggest industries: carmakers hold people 16 years, research firms under four.
How much of a Korean company's life does its average worker see? At most two-fifths of it
Long tenure and old firms go together at 0.66 — the tenure ladder is partly an age ladder. Measured against firm age, no sector's workers have stayed even half the company's life; research looks churny only because its firms are young.
In Korea, the industries that hold their workers longest are mostly the ones that pay them most
Rank 44 listed industries by how long they keep people and by what they pay, and the two line up at 0.67. Long-tenure sectors pay 1.7 times the high-churn ones — but retail keeps people cheaply, and research pays for talent it cannot keep.
Korean brokerages' price targets are met about one time in five
Score every target against the stock twelve months later. Across 19,495 rated reports, 21.6% of price targets were reached. Brokers promised 38% upside on average; the shares delivered 10%.
Health care is 40% women, heavy industry 11% — Korea's sector gender gap
Sort every listed company by our sector scheme and take the median female share. Health care is 40% women and finance 35%; heavy industry, materials and utilities sit near 11 to 14%. The gap is roughly four to one.
Shinhan's longest fractional-share list is mostly unbuyable
Shinhan posts Korea's longest fractional-share list, 2,450 stocks. But 2,022 of those are marked sell-only; only 428 can be bought. Line up all eight brokers and just 46 stocks are fraction-buyable everywhere.
Market value per employee ranges 3,100-fold across Korean firms. Almost all of it is an artifact.
Divide a company's market cap by its staff and the spread is absurd — 3,100 times. Remove the holding companies and pre-revenue biotech, and what survives is a 17-fold gap between industries: capital intensity, not what anyone produced.
Korea's convertibles create new shares at a 24% discount. Cash raises, 12%.
Measured against the market price on the day the shares are created, convertibles dilute at a 23.8% discount and cash raises at 12.5%. Control for the 456 companies that used both and the convertible still discounts 7.7 points deeper.
One in three Korean listed companies files its headcount in pieces. Forty-two add it up.
The employee table in a Korean annual report carries no required total. Read only the first row — as we did until yesterday — and 482,227 people disappear from a sample of 853,817.
Korean firms with more women underperformed by 17 points last year. Control for industry and the gap vanishes.
Across 2,573 listed companies, staff tenure and female share both look like they predict returns — in opposite directions. They are the same fact counted twice. One survives an industry control; the other does not.
Korean analysts didn't just stop saying sell. They stopped saying hold.
Across 55,580 rated broker reports since 2014, the neutral rating has fallen from 9.7% to 3.3% of all calls. The collapse happened in two steps, in 2018 and 2020, and it shows up inside individual firms — not just in the market average.
A Korean ETF above its stated value falls back tomorrow — unless it holds Asian stocks, in which case it rises
Across 605,072 fund-days, a premium on a domestic or US-tracking ETF predicts a 0.48-point underperformance tomorrow. On an Asia-tracking synthetic fund it predicts a 0.32-point gain. Same number, opposite meaning.
Four of Korea's ten best-paying listed companies employ fewer than 200 people
Every listed company files its average pay per employee. Read the ranking without checking headcount and you will misread what it measures — four of the top ten are head offices, not workforces.
In 76 percent of Korea's large listed companies, men stay longer than women
Companies file average tenure by gender in their own annual reports. Across 1,836 listed firms employing 1.81 million people, the weighted gap is 2.11 years — and it is widest in the industries Korea exports.
KOSPI fell 31% from its peak. It is still up 48% this year.
Korea's benchmark peaked at 9,114.55 on 22 June and closed at 6,257.45 on 3 August — down 31.3% in six weeks. But it ended 2025 at 4,214.17, so even after the drop it is up 48.5% year-to-date. Both are true at once. Not advice.
Korean banks are up 6% since the KOSPI peaked. The index is down 31% because it is 60% semiconductors.
Of 160 tradeable Korea Exchange indices, twelve have risen since 22 June. Electronics is 60.1% of KOSPI market capitalisation, fell 38.7%, and dragged the benchmark with it. Banks, pharma and staples never joined the fall.
Korean brokerages posted 26,051 stock reports in three years. Twenty-six said sell.
A complete census of every company report published to Korea's most-read retail research board finds sell ratings at 0.114 percent — one for every 838 buys. Thirteen of the twenty firms never issued a single one.