Dealers on Jan. 26 celebrate the secondary stock market KOSDAQ breaking 1,000 for the first time in four years at the dealing room of Hana Bank's headquarters in Seoul's Jung-gu District. (Yonhap News)

By Kim Seon Ah

The secondary stock market KOSDAQ has returned to the 1,000 level for the first time in four years.

The Korea Exchange on Jan. 27 said KOSDAQ closed the day before at 1,064.41, up 70.48 points (7.09%) from the previous trading day. The index opened at 1,003.90 on Jan. 23, extending its gains and surging up to 1,064.44 during trading.

A sidecar, or a temporary halt to trading to alleviate market volatility, was activated.

The closing price was the highest since the KOSDAQ system was overhauled in 2004 and the first record in over 25 years since right before the dot-com bubble burst in September 2000.

Expectations of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea's stock market stimulus is considered a direct cause of the KOSDAQ surge. Since the party's special committee for achieving 5,000 on the main index KOSPI on Jan. 22 proposed visions for the concept "KOSDAQ 3000" at a luncheon with the president, the secondary market has since grown over 2% in a continuing upward trend.

By sector, robotics, secondary batteries and biotech stocks led the KOSDAQ rise, with companies such as EcoPro BM, EcoPro and Rainbow Robotics seeing significant increases.

In supply and demand, individual investors were especially active in buying, having net sold over KRW 2 trillion since the year started. Institutions have also supported the market through net buying of over KRW 2.7 trillion, with their funds focused on growth stocks such as robotics, secondary batteries and biotech.

sofiakim218@korea.kr