WhyItDropped

KOSPI · December 21, 1998

Rates collapse, money moves

+7.70%

single-day change vs previous close

Part of a longer stretch

Korea's post-IMF rebound

midway through · 1998-06-16 → 1999-04-27, +183.56% over the whole period

What happened that day?

  • On 21 December 1998 the KOSPI rose 7.7% in a single day
  • Rates that had been driven into the high teens under the bailout conditions were down to single digits by year end
  • At those levels there is no reason to leave money in deposits, so it moves into shares
  • Retail money did start pouring into equity funds around this time
  • Restructuring was under way and the outlook for surviving companies was improving
  • This run led into the big 1999 advance and the old high returned in April

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.