South Korea will fully lift a short-selling ban in the domestic stock market from March 31 for the first time in five years, the financial regulator said on Friday.
“With recent improvements and policy efforts, it is expected that concerns about short-selling trades undermining fair pricing in the market will be resolved,” the Financial Services Commission (FSC) said in a statement.
Since re-imposing a sudden market-wide ban in November 2023 to root out illegal trades, authorities have launched an investigation into short-selling trades by foreign banks and developed a new system to detect such practices.
Authorities have also brought in regulatory changes intended to promote a “level playing field” between retail and institutional investors.