[Anchor]

These days, while the Kospi barely inches up when it rises, the Kosdaq is soaring fiercely.

It has skyrocketed by 35% compared to its recent lows. Reporter Min Gyeongho looks into the reasons behind this surge.

[Reporter]

The Kosdaq started 1% higher and steadily expanded its gains.

Even after a buy sidecar was triggered around 9:50 AM, the upward trend continued, ultimately closing nearly 7% higher at 854.

Out of six trading sessions this month, it has risen in five, with strong rebounds continuing to the point where buy sidecars were triggered on three of those days.

Compared to this year's lowest point of 630 recorded during trading on July 29, it has surged by about 35% in just eight trading sessions.

Following the regulations on single-stock leverage in the Kospi on July 31, daily trading value for those products plummeted by around 10 trillion won. Analysts suggest that a significant portion of these investment funds flowed into the Kosdaq.

In fact, Kosdaq trading value, which hovered in the 4 trillion won range just before the regulations, increased to the 7 trillion won range.

In particular, yesterday (August 10), Alteogen, the top biotech company by market capitalization on the Kosdaq, surged 14%, driving the index's rise.

Investment rushed in after BlackRock, the world's largest asset manager, disclosed that it holds a 5% stake in Alteogen.

However, the prevailing interpretation is that this is less of a sign that the Kosdaq has entered a major bull market, and more of a reaction to how severely it had fallen previously.

While the Kospi is currently about 33% lower than its peak recorded last June, the Kosdaq has barely recovered 70% of this year's peak even with its recent gains.

[Interview: Lee Jin-woo / Head of Research Center, Meritz Securities: Because the Kosdaq is packed with high-risk, high-return stocks, it is necessary to narrow down investments to companies backed by fundamentals and earnings.]

The Kospi closed 0.65% higher at 6,299.

Although advancing stocks accounted for over 75% of the total, semiconductor stocks struggled, with Samsung Electronics falling 0.43% and SK Hynix dropping 0.14%.

(Photo: Yonhap News)
Reported by Min Gyeongho | Video by Lee Moo-jin | Video Editing by Choi Hye-ran