As South Korea’s benchmark Kospi index extends its record-breaking rally, investor enthusiasm is spilling into bookstores.
According to Yes24, South Korea’s largest online bookseller, sales of books related to domestic stocks jumped 305 percent in the Jan. 1-May 6 period from a year earlier.
The Kospi closed Friday’s trading session at 7,498, up about 74 percent from the first trading day of the year. The surge has been driven largely by optimism surrounding soaring global demand for artificial intelligence chips and the broader AI ecosystem.
Shares of SK hynix, one of South Korea’s leading chipmakers alongside Samsung Electronics, closed Friday nearly 150 percent higher than at the start of the year.
The unprecedented rally has left many investors gripped by FOMO, or fear of missing out, triggering a renewed rush among retail investors seeking stock market knowledge and investment strategies.
Yes24 reported sharp growth in stock investment book sales as the Kospi crossed major milestones. Sales rose 319 percent in January and 294 percent in February from the same months a year earlier, as the benchmark index breached the 5,000 and 6,000 thresholds, respectively.
milaya@heraldcorp.com
