KOSPI · April 21, 2026
Four weeks to undo a war
+26.44%
trough back to the old high
15 trading days · 2026-03-31 → 2026-04-21
this undid the slide that began 2026-02-26
What happened that day?
- From the low on 31 March 2026 to 21 April, the KOSPI rose 26.44% over 15 trading days
- From a level that had shed a fifth in a month, it regained its old high in four weeks
- The trigger was 1 April. Talk of a ceasefire produced one of the largest single-day gains in the KOSPI's thirty-year record and tripped the upside sidecar during the day
- Around the same time came news that Korean government bonds would enter a global bond index — a reason for foreign money to arrive that had nothing to do with the war
- The recovery was fast because of what the fall had been. Earnings had not collapsed; the market had been pressed down by **a single event**
- Declines of that kind snap back once the event lifts. The flip side is that once a recovery starts, how far it runs is just as hard to call
- The index did not stop here — in mid-May it touched 8,000 for the first time
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 written from the sources listed above.