South Korea’s stock market has given more than 100 percent returns to investors in the current year.
The year 2026 is not going to be anything special in terms of the Indian stock market. So far in the current year, both Sensex and Nifty have given negative returns. But there is one market in Asia which has created a sensation all over the world with its speed. South Korea’s stock market Cospi has shown tremendous growth in the year 2026. The special thing is that this is the biggest rise in the stock market of any country in the last 26 years. On the other hand, it is close to breaking Nasdaq’s record of 102 percent in 1999.
This means that in the current year Cospi has given returns of more than 100 percent to investors. Talking about big markets around the world, Taiwan’s exchange is the only one which has given returns of more than 50 percent to investors in the current year. If Japan’s Nekkai 225 exchange is also added to this, then there are markets of only three countries which have given returns of more than 30 percent to investors. Whereas India’s Sensex has caused a loss of 11 percent to the investors. Let us also tell you what the story of South Korea’s growth is telling in the words of statistics…
South Korea’s market broke all records
South Korean stock market has given 100 percent return to investors in the first half of the year 2026. It has also outpaced the historic boom seen before the dot-com bubble burst and during the country’s industrial boom in the late 1980s. Memory manufacturing companies SK Hynix Inc. And Samsung Electronics Co. Due to the tremendous momentum generated by the rise, the benchmark Kospi has broken several records one after another — and has gone from 5,000 to 8,000 in just a few months. On Wednesday, a jump of up to 5.1 percent was seen in this index.
The year is not even half over, and the Kospi’s performance now rivals the Nasdaq 100 Index’s 102 percent gain in 1999 – just when the bubble was about to burst. Still, few market watchers are sounding alarm bells for Korea as they see a structural shift in global demand for memory chips – moving away from a cyclical pattern to sustained growth.
Double return in the year 2026
If we talk about the year 2026, then South Korea’s index Cospi has given double returns in the current year. In South Korea, SANI was at 4,214.17 points on December 30, the last trading day of the year 2025, which reached its peak at 8,457.09 points on Wednesday. This means that Kospi has given a return of 4,242.92 points i.e. about 101 percent in the current year. The special thing is that in the last one month a rise of 24.39 percent has been seen in Kospi. Whereas Cospi has increased by 12.34 percent in a week. On the other hand, on Wednesday, a rise of 2.25 percent was seen in Kospi at 3:50 pm.
Condition of rest of the world’s markets
If we talk about the rest of the markets of the world, an increase of 54.74 percent has been seen in Taiwan Exchange. Nekkai 225, which is among the biggest markets of the world, has seen an increase of 31.96 percent in the current year. Talking about American indices, Nasdaq Composite S&P has seen a rise of more than 10 percent. Whereas Dow Jones has seen an increase of 5.66 percent. On the other hand, in Chinese markets, Shanghai Composite has seen a rise of 4.65 percent. Whereas Hang Seng remained flat with a rise of 0.03 percent. India’s indices have been among the worst performers in Asia. Where Sensex has seen a decline of 11 percent and Nifty has seen a decline of 8.65 percent in the current year.
