The Kospi and Kosdaq indexes are displayed on an electronic board at Hana Bank's dealing room in Jung-gu, Seoul, on Wednesday. [Yonhap]
The Kospi and Kosdaq indexes are displayed on an electronic board at Hana Bank's dealing room in Jung-gu, Seoul, on Wednesday. [Yonhap]

A batch of so-called penny shares and stocks falling short of market capitalization requirements have been placed on a regulatory watch list.

Korea Exchange announced Wednesday that 36 stocks had been designated as administrative issues — a formal watch-list status — based on closing prices that day, after their share prices remained below 1,000 won for the most recent 30 trading days or their market caps failed to meet the minimum threshold required to maintain their listings.

Of those, 24 stocks were flagged solely for trading below the 1,000-won penny-share threshold — three on the Kospi and 21 on Kosdaq.

Nine others cleared the penny-share threshold but were placed on the watch list for persistently falling short of market cap requirements: 30 billion won ($21.2 million) for Kospi and 20 billion won for Kosdaq. Five of those were Kospi-listed and four were on Kosdaq.

The remaining three stocks — one on Kospi and two on Kosdaq — were flagged on both counts, with share prices below 1,000 won and market caps below the required minimums over the same 30-trading-day period.

The designations follow an amendment to listing regulations that took effect July 1.

Under the revised rules, a stock is placed on the watch list if its share price stays below 1,000 won for 30 consecutive trading days or its market cap falls below the threshold. If the stock then fails to trade above the threshold for at least 45 consecutive trading days within the following 90 trading days, it faces delisting.

The small and medium-sized enterprise community called Wednesday for a grace period on the tightened Kosdaq market cap standard for delisting.

The Korea Federation of SMEs held a regulatory reform forum on SMEs, venture firms and startups at KBIZ Hall in Yeouido, attended by about 130 people including Prime Minister Han Seong-sook, officials from related ministries and representatives from the SME sector.

Korea Federation of SMEs Chairman Kim Ki-moon proposed to Prime Minister Han that improving Kosdaq delisting requirements be placed on the main agenda.


jiyun@heraldcorp.com