The KRX noted the number has been on a steady increase since breaching the 10 million mark in 2007, but said the tally spiked by 1.73 million in 2016, following a 1.51 million on-year surge the year before.

Such large increases compare with a 167,000 rise in 2014.

The KRX attributed the sharp increase last year to a rise in the number of initial public offerings, which it said apparently helped attract new individual investors to the market.

In 2016, the total amount of capital raised through IPOs came to 2.2 trillion won ($1.95 billion), compared with about 1.18 trillion won in 2014, according to the KRX.

The operator of the Seoul bourse forecast the number of trading accounts and market capitalization to continue growing this year, citing a number of major firms expected to go public this year.

They include ING Life Insurance, Hotel Lotte and Netmarble Games, a major online game company said to be worth over $9 billion alone. (Yonhap)