Retail investors will be able to trade blue-chip stocks like Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix on Nextrade starting on March 24.
Nextrade, South Korea’s first alternative trading system, announced that the number of stocks up for trade on its platform will increase from 110 to 350 beginning Monday. The expanded roster includes 200 companies listed on the benchmark KOSPI and 150 on the small-cap KOSDAQ.
The expansion brings many of Korea’s largest publicly traded companies onto the platform, including Samsung Electronics, Samsung Biologics, LG Energy Solution, and Hyundai Motor Company. Other newly added names include Kia, Korean Air, Doosan, Meritz Financial Group, Celltrion, Amorepacific, Yuhan, Hanwha, Kakao, Krafton, Korea Aerospace Industries, Hanwha Aerospace, KT, and LG.
Top-cap stocks on the KOSDAQ, such as Alteogen, EcoPro BM, EcoPro Co, HLB, and Rainbow Robotics, are now also available for trading. However, PharmaResearch, which was designated as an “investment warning” stock on March 17, will remain untradeable until the designation is lifted. A Nextrade official said that stocks on regulators’ watchlist are either excluded or restricted from trading for a certain period.
Nextrade, which launched earlier this month, allows trading outside of regular hours through a pre-market session (8 a.m. - 8:50 a.m.) and an aftermarket session (3:30 p.m. - 8 p.m.) Stock trading on the Korea Exchange runs from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
The addition of high-volume, large-cap stocks is expected to drive more activity on the platform. Nextrade’s average daily trading volume jumped from 15.5 billion won ($11 million) between March 4 and 14, when only 10 stocks were available, to 13.23 billion won from April 17 to 20, after the list expanded to 110.
