SOUTH Korea may extend its total ban on short selling of stocks beyond June next year if reform measures are deemed insufficient, the country’s financial regulator said.

The country will review market conditions and look for improvements in the short selling systems before deciding to end the ban that is in place until June 2024, Kim So-young, vice chairman at the Financial Services Commission, said on Thursday (Nov 16).

“We will do our best by the end of June to resume short selling. But if the system improvements are not enough, we can extend then,” Kim told reporters after a closed-door meeting with ruling party officials to discuss short selling.

South Korea had already banned naked short selling, a practice where traders place sell orders for the stocks without owning or even borrowing them beforehand. On Nov 5, the country banned short selling altogether until the end of June 2024, saying it had discovered “massive” illegal naked short selling by global investment banks in local stocks.

The officials’ meeting comes after President Yoon Suk-yeol’s remarks earlier this week that the ban will stay in place until fundamental improvements are made to prevent more harm to retail investors.

Retail investors in Korea have called for the ban, arguing that the trade practice gives unfair advantages to institutional and global investors. Short-selling proponents say it leads to more liquidity and more accurate valuations. BLOOMBERG

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