As part of tightened delisting requirements to weed out troubled companies from the South Korean stock market, a large number of "penny stocks" and companies failing to meet market capitalization standards have been designated as administrative issues.

The Korea Exchange announced today (the 12th) the designation of 36 stocks as administrative issues, as their share prices remained below 1,000 won for the past 30 consecutive trading days or they fell short of the market capitalization criteria required to maintain listing.

Among them, 3 stocks on the KOSPI market and 21 on the KOSDAQ market were designated as administrative issues due to being penny stocks trading below 1,000 won.

A total of 9 stocks—5 on the KOSPI market and 4 on the KOSDAQ market—did not meet the penny stock criteria but were designated as administrative issues for continuously falling short of the market capitalization thresholds, which are 30 billion won for KOSPI and 20 billion won for KOSDAQ.

In addition, there were 3 stocks (1 on KOSPI and 2 on KOSDAQ) that had share prices below 1,000 won for 30 trading days while also falling short of the market capitalization standard.

This measure follows the revised listing regulations that took effect on July 1 of last month.

Under these rules, companies whose share prices remain below 1,000 won for 30 consecutive trading days or fall below the market capitalization threshold are designated as administrative issues. If they fail to clear the criteria for 45 "consecutive trading days" or more out of the subsequent 90 trading days, they will face final delisting.

(Photo: Yonhap News)