Lee Joo-young, an office worker in his 30s, recently broke a three-year deposit to put the money into large-cap semiconductor stocks.
“I thought the stock market boom would be short-lived, but I guess I was wrong,” he said. “Better late than never, right? I don’t want to leave cash for two or more years while feeling frustrated for missing out. The past few months have been enough. I will stop feeling jealous or bitter for not taking the chance sooner.”
Many of his friends made quick money after buying SK hynix and Samsung Electronics, some of them having taken out stock loans for larger gains.
“Every time we said SK hynix share prices were too high and soon would fall, they climbed higher. Is it too late? Maybe, but maybe not, since the semiconductor supercycle is reportedly locked in for the next few years. Samsung Electronics shares are not what they used to be. Who would have thought they would top 200,000 won ($139)?” Lee said.
Similarly, Lim Sung-yoon, another office worker, said stock investments were a frequent topic of conversation in her daily life.
“When I meet friends or colleagues now, we always talk about stocks,” she said. “Volatility is scary, but the returns are better than leaving money in the bank. When people first said that the benchmark KOSPI would surge to 5,000 points a few months ago, few believed it would happen. Not this soon. Now the index has topped 6,000 points. At this point, not investing is just missing out on the surefire opportunity.”
These are two among many investors opting out of long-term bank savings in favor of equity investment.
According to financial market data, term deposits with maturities of two years or more at banks came to 52.9 trillion won as of last December, down more than 7.7 trillion won from a year earlier.
This is the steepest annual decline since related data was compiled starting in 1991 — even faster than the 3.6 trillion won decline posted during the height of the Asian financial crisis in 1998.
According to the Korea Financial Investment Association, the number of active stock trading accounts has climbed to a record 101.5 million as of Friday. This is up nearly 7 percent from last October, when KOSPI first topped 4,000.
Source: Korea Times News
