20210203 South Korean dealers (market spot)

Dealers work in front of monitors at Hana Bank in Seoul on Feb. 2. South Korean stocks have been on a tear, getting a major boost from younger retail investors. They are now bracing for the end of the country's unprecedentedly long ban on short selling, the lifting of which they have vehemently opposed. © EPA/Jiji

Return of short-selling to test South Korea's small investors

End of ban could usher in more cautious approach to share trading

KIM JAEWON, Nikkei staff writer

February 8, 2021 06:39 JST

SEOUL/POHANG, South Korea -- When a group of young women met over bubble tea at a cafe in Pohang, South Korea, last week, there was a hot topic of conversation -- the stock market.

"I bought shares in Naver and AmorePacific recently. But I won't buy Posco because it is still at the bottom," said one. Trading is "simple and easy," the woman, in her 20s, told one of her friends. "You can search for brokerage houses on the internet, like Kiwoom, and open your account there." Kiwoom Securities is the country's biggest online brokerage house.