KOSPI · September 19, 2008
Seoul answers the rescue plan
+4.55%
single-day change vs previous close
Part of a longer stretch
The KOSPI in the financial crisis
near the end of it · 2007-10-31 → 2008-10-24, -54.54% over the whole period
What happened that day?
- 19 September 2008 — the KOSPI rose 4.55% to close at 1,455.78
- Late in the previous American session, word spread that the Treasury was preparing to buy banks' bad assets outright. Seoul took it the next morning
- It was the fourth day after Lehman Brothers failed, and that week was a crisis a day. Three sessions earlier the KOSPI had collapsed in a single day
- Several countries also moved that day to block short selling in financial shares — betting on the downside was sealed off for a while
- Korea reacted especially hard because of the won. Foreign money had been leaving and the exchange rate was climbing fast; when global funding loosens, that pressure eases first
- The gain did not mean things had improved. It meant a signal had arrived that the state would not let go
- From the late-May high to the 24 October low the index fell 49.31%. This rally was one day inside that
Sources
Every figure on this page is recomputed from the original daily closing prices and checked against them at build time. The account of what happened is put together from the public record; where a specific source was consulted it is listed above.