Deposit Requirement Raised to 30 Million Won Starting Today... Additional Cap Regulations Added

[Anchor]

Government measures to raise the investment barrier for single-stock leverage ETFs take effect today (the 31st). Overnight, U.S. AI-related stocks, including Micron, surged following Microsoft's earnings surprise, and all eyes are on whether our local stock market, which has been in a repeated slump, can manage a rebound today.

Reporter Min Gyeongho has the details.

[Reporter]

The SK Hynix single-stock leverage product has plunged more than 80% from its peak, and dropped over 50% in the past five trading sessions alone.

As losses mount for investors in single-stock leverage products amid a persistent slide in semiconductor shares, the government has decided to introduce an additional, stringent aggregate regulation by setting individual investment limits.

The limits will be set for each account by individual securities firms, with the government citing "20% of total investment amount" as an example.

The move aims to cushion the ripple effects on individual accounts even if sharp volatility continues, and to curb excessive investment demand.

In addition, authorities plan to impose extra fees on investors who excessively trade single-stock leverage products and establish legal grounds allowing authorities to take market stabilization measures, such as adjusting leverage ratios, in emergency situations.

As measures strengthening the deposit requirement to 30 million won in cash go into effect starting today, the government stated it will implement additional complementary measures as swiftly as possible.

[Lee Jun-seo / Professor of Business Administration, Dongguk University : It will have a significant suppressing effect on a large portion of demand... However, backlash is also expected regarding whether this makes it a product only accessible to the wealthy.]

Meanwhile, critics point out that the government is resorting to stopgap and belated measures, while the Citizens' Coalition for Economic Justice criticized the introduction of single-stock leverage products as a policy failure.

[Park Jung-jun / Investor in his 30s from Yangcheon-gu, Seoul : I think making the market unstable might be a bit different from the government's original objective.]

The KOSPI rose by more than 5% at one point, but soon turned downward, ultimately closing down by about 1% at 5,593.

While Samsung Electronics announced its largest-ever second-quarter earnings, it failed to be recognized as a catalyst for a definite trend reversal, with individual investors net-selling 1.4 trillion won to lead the decline.

(Photo: Choi Ho-jun | Video Editing: Kim Jong-tae)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.