South Korea is extending trading hours on its main stock exchange, breaking with established norms across major Asian markets as it seeks to attract sustained participation from global investors and move towards its goal of 24-hour trading.
From Monday, the Korea Exchange will allow trading in nearly all local stocks until 8 p.m., following the regular market close at 3:30 p.m. The move is the first of its kind among major Asian exchanges and follows a broader global shift towards longer and potentially around-the-clock markets led by Nasdaq and the New York Stock Exchange.
The extension comes after South Korea’s stock market delivered one of the world’s strongest performances this year, fuelled by enthusiasm over artificial intelligence. The Korea Exchange hopes the longer session will encourage greater international participation, particularly during European business hours.
But the launch will also test whether investors actually want additional trading time and whether enough liquidity can be sustained beyond the regular session. That question has become more important as enthusiasm for Korean equities has cooled following a sharp market reversal.
“The longer trading window generally means more flexibility for investors, and that makes the market more efficient,” said Young Jae Lee, senior investment manager at Pictet Asset Management in London. “Investors who are more trading-oriented with higher turnover, or hedge fund types may use it more frequently.”
After-hours trading is already available in South Korea. Nextrade, an alternative trading system, introduced pre-market and evening sessions in March 2025 covering about 600 stocks. Within a few months, it had captured nearly a third of trading activity.
The Korea Exchange’s latest initiative expands the evening market considerably, opening about 2,400 Kospi and Kosdaq stocks to trading, including short-selling. Exchange-traded funds are excluded for now. The exchange also plans to introduce pre-market trading by the end of 2027.
Edward Kim, head of Korea equities sales at Bank of America, described the move as “another step in the ongoing evolution of Korea’s capital markets and their accessibility to global investors”.
Yet few market participants expect an immediate surge in activity. The key question is whether sufficient buyers and sellers will participate, particularly after thin liquidity was observed following the extension of currency-market hours in July.
The Kospi more than doubled this year before reaching a peak amid the AI-driven rally. A sharp reversal in sentiment then triggered a 22% selloff in July and a significant contraction in turnover. Despite the decline, the benchmark remains up 64% in 2026, making it the best-performing major index globally.
Foreign investors are likely to be cautious about making large evening trades in major companies such as Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix until they can determine whether sufficient liquidity exists, said Dave Mazza, chief executive officer of Roundhill Financial.
“Extending the hours does not create liquidity; it redistributes it,” Mazza said, predicting that initial interest would probably be modest.
Nextrade’s experience offers a warning. Its data show retail investors accounted for more than 80% of non-regular trading, while volatile price movements and limited institutional participation created additional challenges.
Currency hedging could pose another obstacle for international investors. Although South Korea’s foreign exchange market technically operates around the clock, trading outside peak hours can be thin. That could make hedging more expensive and discourage foreign funds from committing substantial capital during evening stock sessions.
Liquidity could also affect execution prices. Investors seeking to move large blocks of shares in a thin evening market may have to pay significantly more to buy or accept substantially less when selling, said Sanghyun Park, founder of Clepsydra Capital.
“The biggest risk is just getting caught in low liquidity,” Park said.
Despite these concerns, market watchers broadly support the longer session because it gives investors more time to respond to late-breaking news and company earnings. The recent listing of SK Hynix’s American depositary receipts has provided another route for foreign investors seeking exposure to Korean equities, although that channel remains focused largely on chip stocks.
“The after-market session promotes market equality by enabling a wider range of investors to react to post-close news, thereby reducing information asymmetry, and enhancing overall market fairness,” said Tony Cheung, execution consultant specialist at Instinet.
