KOSPI · September 11, 1998
September in the wake of Russia
-5.41%
single-day change vs previous close
Part of a longer stretch
Korea's post-IMF rebound
early in it · 1998-06-16 → 1999-04-27, +183.56% over the whole period
What happened that day?
- 11 September 1998 — the KOSPI fell 5.41%. No single cause for that one day could be pinned down
- Russia had declared in August that it could not pay its debts, and money was draining out of emerging markets generally
- Investors pulling money out did not sort by country. Korea was improving and still got sold as part of the 'emerging' bucket
- A large American hedge fund was collapsing around the same time. That only became visible the following month
- Bad loans at Japanese banks were the other worry. Credit was tightening across Asia
- This index had fallen 24.15% from late May to mid-June that year and was climbing back. September briefly cut that recovery
- Ten days later it was rising sharply again — the start of a rebound that ran into October
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.