WhyItDropped

KOSPI · December 1, 2011

The day the central banks moved together

+3.72%

single-day change vs previous close

Part of a longer stretch

Six months after money reached Europe's banks

midway through · 2011-09-26 → 2012-04-03, +24.00% over the whole period

What happened that day?

  • The KOSPI rose 3.72% on the day
  • The day before, six central banks including the US, Europe and Japan had agreed to supply dollars to European banks more cheaply
  • China lowered the reserves its banks must hold the same day. It was read as coordinated rather than coincidental
  • This mattered for Korea because European banks had been calling in what they lent across Asia. Easing that pressure means less money leaving
  • Several countries acting on one day is a signal in itself, taken far more seriously than each acting alone
  • It too only bought time, and Europe's problem was not actually resolved until the following summer

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.