The Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI).

• Recently, Asian share markets witnessed losses except for South Korea’s KOSPI which gained 0.7 percent.

Other Asian indexes performance

• Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index tumbled 2.3 percent
• China’s Shanghai Composite index declined 0.9 percent.
• Singapore’s Straits Times ended 0.3 percent down.
• Japan’s NIKKEI-225 fell marginally by 0.1 percent.

    In European shares, markets were up in intra-day trade.

• London’s FTSE 100 rose 0.4 percent.
• Germany’s DAX gained 1.1 percent.
• France’s CAC was 1.4 percent up.

About KOSPI

• The Korea Composite Stock Price Index or KOSPI was launched in 1983 with the base value of 100 as of January 4, 1980.
• KOSPI is the major stock market index of South Korea. The index represents all common stocks traded on the Korea Exchange.
• The index calculation is based on market capitalization method. KOSPI replaced Dow-style KCSPI (Korea Composite Stock Price Index) in 1983.KOSPI moved below 1,000 mark for several years.
• The index breached 1,000 for the first time in April 1989.
• KOSPI recorded its largest one-day percentage gain of 8.50% on June 17, 1998 & largest one-day percentage drop of 12.02% on September 12, 2001.
• The index’s Korean name was officially changed to Koseupi jisu in November 2005. KOSPI reached another milestone of breaking 2000 level for the first time on July 24, 2007.