Korea Exchange (KRX) announced Monday that it has signed 2026 stock market-making contracts with 10 member securities firms. The market maker system is designed to facilitate smooth trading for stocks with low trading volumes by having securities firms continuously provide both buy and sell quotes during trading hours.
The contract participants include NH Investment & Securities, Kyobo Securities, Shinyoung Securities, Korea IMC Securities, LS Securities, Meritz Securities, CLSA Korea Securities, Daol Investment & Securities, Daishin Securities, and Shinhan Investment Securities. Among them, Daishin Securities and Shinhan Investment Securities are newly participating in market-making operations.
The number of stocks covered by market-making contracts for next year has increased slightly compared to this year. In the KOSPI market, the number rose 3% from 304 to 313, while the KOSDAQ market saw a 1% increase from 415 to 421 stocks. For the KOSPI market, 95.2% of contracted stocks have been assigned two or more market makers, while 37.5% of KOSDAQ stocks have multiple market makers.
"We expect that liquidity and trading stability in the stock market will be enhanced through the assignment of market makers," the exchange said. "We plan to continue our efforts to expand liquidity for stocks subject to market making."
Meanwhile, the exchange also signed 2026 market-making contracts for stock and stock index derivatives with 19 securities firms the previous day. As a result, two or more market makers have been assigned to a total of 354 derivative products.
