STOCKS | South Korea Sees More Than 1.2 Million Leveraged Retail Accounts Hit Margin Calls

South Korea’s Financial Supervisory Service said more than 1.2 million leveraged retail investor accounts across the market had reached margin call levels as of July 13. According to Odaily, about 320,000 to 360,000 of those accounts were fully liquidated by brokerages. Based on South Korea’s population, the figure was equivalent to one in every 30 adults, or about 3.4%, facing liquidation risk. Total losses from leveraged trading were estimated at about 2.15 trillion won. In July alone, the size of forced liquidations in South Korea reached 344.2 billion won. On July 9, forced liquidations totaled 142.2 billion won, nearly five times the previous day’s 28.8 billion won. Retail margin deposit balances fell by nearly 300 billion won from the end of June to 107.1 trillion won, the lowest level since June 2020.