An electronic bulletin board on Jan. 22 displays the main stock market KOSPI breaking 5,200 for the first time at the dealing room of Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul's Jung-gu District. (Yonhap News)

By Lee Jihae

The domestic stock market has overtaken Germany's to become the 10th largest in the world.

Bloomberg on Jan. 28 said the Korean market is 10th in the world in market cap "powered by tech giants riding the global boom in artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics."

Since early last year, the market cap has jumped USD 1.7 trillion to USD 3.25 trillion (KRW 4,631.57 trillion), surpassing Germany's USD 3.22 trillion (KRW 4,589.46 trillion) for 10th place just behind Taiwan.

Bloomberg said, "The reshuffling in rankings highlights the swift rise of Korean stocks, driven by shareholder-friendly reforms and the nation's pivotal role in the global AI supply chain."

Keith Bortoluzzi, managing director of the Singapore-based asset management company Impactfull Partners, was quoted as saying, "Korea is no longer just a proxy for global trade; it is the only market currently positioned at the bottleneck of the three most critical megatrends of the 2020s: AI, electrification, and defense."

jihlee08@korea.kr