Books on stock investing are displayed on the shelves at a bookstore in Seoul on Jan. 19, 2021. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, March 9 (Korea Bizwire) — The number of stock accounts held by South Koreans under 18 years of age has shot up over the past two years, with the value of the stocks they hold almost doubling.
The number of minors who have their own stock accounts stood at 187,532 in 2018, 204,696 in 2019 and 601,568 in 2020, more than tripling over the past two years, according to the data from KEB Hana Bank, KB Kookmin Bank and the Korea Securities Depository.
The value of the stocks they held almost doubled from 1.54 trillion won in 2018 to 3.04 trillion won in 2020.
The number of stock accounts and the amount of investment both marked a sharp increase last year when the stock fever was so hot enough to create a string of new coined words including ‘bittoo,’ the Korean term for borrowing to invest.
In terms of the value of stock held, a 16-year-old individual ranked first with 84.6 billion won (US$74 million) in holdings.
Also included on the top ten list was a 3-year-old child who owns 16.7 billion won worth of stocks.
Lina Jang (linajang@koreabizwire.com)
