Over 24 trillion won flows into the top five Korean banks amid market volatility.

ME News reports that on August 2 (UTC+8), South Korea’s stock market has experienced heightened volatility, with investors’ risk appetite clearly cooling and capital flowing back into safer assets such as banks. Due to corrections in the semiconductor sector and stricter regulation of leveraged investments, investment funds in the South Korean stock market have rapidly withdrawn, creating a phenomenon of “reverse capital migration.” Data shows that as of the end of July, the total balance of time deposits at South Korea’s five major banks—KB Kookmin, Shinhan, Hana, Woori, and NH Nonghyup—reached 973.49 trillion KRW, an increase of 24.09 trillion KRW from the previous month, marking the largest monthly increase this year. Funds surrounding the stock market have also significantly contracted. According to the Korea Financial Investment Association, investor securities account deposits—funds held for stock trading—peaked at 139.69 trillion KRW on June 4 but had declined to 107.20 trillion KRW by July 28, a reduction of over 32 trillion KRW in less than two months. Meanwhile, the credit trading financing balance, which reflects the scale of margin trading in the market, fell to 33.19 trillion KRW during the same period, down by approximately 4.5 trillion KRW from the peak of 37.72 trillion KRW recorded on July 2, a decline of about 12%. (Source: ODAILY)