Dealers work at the dealing room of Hana Bank headquarters in Jung-gu, Seoul, on the morning of the 5th, as the KOSPI index surged in early trading, touching the 5,700 mark. On this day, the KOSPI opened at 5,250.92, up 157.38 points (3.09%) from the previous day. The won/dollar exchange rate opened at 1,464.0 won, down 12.2 won, and the KOSDAQ opened at 1,023.84, up 45.40 points (4.64%). [Yonhap News Agency] 

It appears that the market capitalization of the Korean stock market has been surpassed again by Taiwan, directly impacted by the fallout from Iran's de facto blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, a vital energy transit route, following attacks by the United States and Israel.

This resulted from a sharp decline of 19.24% in the KOSPI and 17.65% in the KOSDAQ over the past two trading days.

According to the financial investment industry and the Korea Exchange on the 5th, the total market capitalization of the stock market (KOSPI), KOSDAQ, and KONEX markets was 4,736 trillion won as of the closing price the previous day.

This amount is 1,069 trillion won (18.41%) less than the 5,805 trillion won recorded on March 27th, before the sharp decline began.

The market capitalization of the Taiwan Stock Exchange, a rival, was 115.410176 trillion Taiwan dollars (approximately 5,318 trillion won) as of March 26th. Since then, the decline in the Taiwan Weighted Stock Index up to the previous day has been only 7.30%.

Based on a simple calculation, it is estimated that the market capitalization is currently around 106.9852 trillion Taiwan dollars (4,928 trillion won), surpassing that of the Korean stock market.

According to data from the World Federation of Exchanges (WFE), when market capitalizations of 16 stock exchanges worldwide were converted to US dollars and compared at the end of January this year, the Korea Exchange ranked 11th globally.

The top spot was held by the Nasdaq in the U.S. (38.414 trillion dollars), followed by the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in second place (29.4772 trillion dollars), and the Shanghai Stock Exchange in China in third place (9.6718 trillion dollars).

Following these were the Japan Exchange Group (7.7054 trillion dollars), Euronext (7.5897 trillion dollars), Shenzhen Stock Exchange in China (6.6496 trillion dollars), Hong Kong Exchanges (6.4968 trillion dollars), Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) in India (4.9890 trillion dollars), National Stock Exchange of India (NSE) (4.9804 trillion dollars), and Toronto Stock Exchange (TMX) in Canada (4.7041 trillion dollars), rounding out the top 4-10 positions.

The Korea Exchange (3.4240 trillion dollars) was in 11th place, with the Taiwan Stock Exchange (3.3215 trillion dollars) and Deutsche Börse (2.7327 trillion dollars) ranking 12th and 13th, respectively.

The Korean stock market's market capitalization was lower than Taiwan's and Germany's by the end of last year, but it managed to climb in rankings after a nearly 50% surge in a short period after the new year began.

However, due to the recent sharp decline, it appears to have fallen behind Taiwan again.

Nonetheless, according to the U.S. investment information media Gurufocus, the market capitalization of the German stock market, which Korea had already overtaken earlier this year, is currently estimated at 2.3329 trillion euros (approximately 3,971 trillion won), so the gap with the Korean stock market has not significantly narrowed.

The financial investment industry suggests that given the excessive recent decline in the Korean stock market, there is a high possibility that the market capitalization rankings will soon return to their rightful positions.

In fact, as of 11:02 AM today, the KOSPI is showing a sharp rebound of 9.72%, reaching 5,588.60. In the stock market, individuals and foreign investors are showing net buying of 1.0381 trillion won and 465.8 billion won, respectively, while institutional investors are net selling 1.4884 trillion won.