South Korean officials have stepped in to shore up support for the country’s financial markets, as investors braced for political uncertainty after President Yoon Suk Yeol’s failed attempt to impose martial law. Kim Byung-hwan, head of the country’s top financial regulator, said the government was ready to activate a Won10tn stock market stabilisation fund and a Won40tn bond market stabilisation fund if needed. The benchmark Kospi index closed down 1.
“Nuclear power stocks were smashed today,” said Sanjeev Rana, head of Korea research at CLSA. Shares of Doosan Enerbility, which builds nuclear power plants, dropped more than 10 per cent. South Korean equities have underperformed relative to other markets as the country has struggled to roll out reforms to end what some investors call the “Korea discount”. “There’s a lot of bad news already priced in . . . for what is otherwise a pretty stable, wealthy democracy,” Matthews said.