▲ The closing price of the KOSPI is displayed on the electronic board of the dealing room at Hana Bank in Jung-gu, Seoul, on the 15th, when the KOSPI and KSDAC indexes plummeted due to reignited controversy over the profitability of the artificial intelligence (AI) industry.
As the domestic stock market continues its steep decline, investor deposits, which serve as waiting funds for the market, have fallen back below 100 trillion won.
Forced liquidation of stocks—triggered when investors fail to repay funds borrowed from securities firms—has surged to the tens of billions of won.
According to the Korea Financial Investment Association on the 15th, investor deposits stood at 97.428 trillion won on the 14th, down 2.6702 trillion won from the previous day.
Deposits had narrowly maintained the 100 trillion won level since the 2nd, but ultimately fell below the threshold.
This marks the first time deposits have dropped below 100 trillion won since September 21 (98.1386 trillion won), and the lowest level since September 8 (96.9863 trillion won).
Investor deposits typically increase during stock market rallies, but the recent sharp decline in the KOSPI is interpreted as the cause of the decrease.
The KOSPI index fell for six consecutive trading sessions from the 6th to the 14th, including a sharp drop of 6.14% on the 13th.
On the 14th, it barely held the 6,000 mark at 6,008.81.
On the same day, the balance of credit margin loans—an indicator of debt-financed investing—recorded 33.7057 trillion won, a decrease of 547.1 billion won from the previous session.
On the 12th, this balance had hit 34.2886 trillion won, marking the highest level since July 15 (34.3701 trillion won).
Although credit balances decreased, ultra-short-term unsettled margin transactions showed a sharp upward trend.
The scale of these unsettled margin transactions reached 1.3574 trillion won on the 14th, an increase of more than 100 billion won from the previous session.
Marking four consecutive days of increases, it surged by 425.8 billion won, or 45.7%, compared to 931.6 billion won on the 7th.
Stocks forcibly liquidated through forced selling due to failure to cover these unsettled amounts approached 90 billion won.
The amount of forced liquidation stood at around 6.3 billion won on the 8th, but surged to 27 billion won on the 12th, 59.3 billion won on the 13th, and 89.3 billion won on the 14th.
Over the span of three trading sessions, 175.6 billion won worth of stocks were forcibly sold off.
The forced liquidation amount of 89.3 billion won is the highest level since July 31 (122 billion won).
The proportion of forced liquidation relative to unsettled amounts also jumped to 7.2%, up from 5.6% the previous day.
(Photo: Yonhap News)
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