The Financial Services Commission issued a press explanation refuting a Bloomberg column that reported "Korea is also becoming an uninvestable country," saying "some of the cited statistics do not align with the facts."
On the 5th, according to the securities industry, Bloomberg columnist Shuli Ren wrote a column titled "South Korea Is Becoming Uninvestable, Too."
The column said that the recent volatility in Korea's stock market has expanded excessively, to the point that even investors who believe in the global artificial intelligence (AI) boom could decide to move away from the KOSPI, diagnosing that "Korea is becoming a market unsuitable for investment."
The Financial Services Commission (FSC) pushed back, saying, "Korea's economy is more solid than ever in fundamentals such as GDP growth and the current account." It added, "On expectations for the AI and semiconductor industries, domestic corporations' projected earnings have risen even compared with when stock prices were at their peak," and emphasized, "Numerous domestic and overseas IBs still place weight on the robust growth potential of the domestic stock market."
According to the Financial Services Commission (FSC), the KOSPI corporations' earnings outlook this year—aggregating FnGuide estimates—rose from 6.44 trillion won at the end of Mar. to 8.54 trillion won at the end of Apr., 9.12 trillion won at the end of May, and expanded to 9.3 trillion won on June 22, when the KOSPI index hit a peak. It then increased to 9.75 trillion won at the end of July, and to 9.78 trillion won as of the 4th of this month.
On criticism that volatility has recently increased, it said, "It is true that market volatility has expanded since mid-June," but added, "there are signs that investor sentiment is recovering." To that end, it prepared supplementary measures related to single-stock leveraged products recently and said it plans to continue to solidify a market-stabilizing stance going forward.
The Financial Services Commission (FSC) also raised questions about the reliability of the figures cited in the column. It said that for forced liquidation combining margin loans and receivables, the daily average was about 3,000 accounts during June, yet the column cited a figure of 360,000 accounts.
The Financial Services Commission (FSC) said, "It appears that some of the cited statistics do not align with the facts," adding, "With Korea emerging as an irreplaceable supply chain and investment destination in the global AI market, there is no concern that it will be assessed as an 'uninvestable country' based on figures with unclear grounds."