Korea Has Finally Lifted A Historic Short Selling Ban Enacted During The Global Financial Crisis

On Wednesday, South Korea lifted a ban on short selling of financials stocks enacted during the global financial crisis in October 2008. Early in Thursday trading, the Korean KOSPI is up 0.6%, and the only big losers are Daewoo Securities (down 6.6%) and Woori Investment & Securities (down 5.2%). "The Korean government imposed this ban in 2008 during the Global Financial Crisis," says Bryan Song, a research analyst at BofA Merrill Lynch. "Originally, Korea forbade short trades for all stocks in ...