FTSE decides to promote S. Korea`s market status: gov`t official

SEOUL/LONDON, Sept. 17 (Yonhap) -- The London-based FTSE Group has decided to upgrade the status of the South Korean stock market to "developed" from "advanced emerging," significantly helping the country attract foreign investment, a government official here said Wednesday.

"As far as I know, the Financial Times Stock Exchange has decided to classify South Korea as a 'developed' market," said the official, asking not to be named.

The FTSE, an independent company jointly owned by The Financial Times and the London Stock Exchange, creates and manages equity, bond and alternative asset class indices worldwide.

"Mark Makepeace, FTSE Group's chief executive," will hold a news conference in Seoul on Thursday morning to announce the decision," the official said.

The chairman will also announce the FTSE's annual review of other markets as well, he said.

The key global equity index compiler classifies markets into four categories: developed, advanced emerging, secondary emerging and frontier markets.

South Korea, one of six advanced emerging markets, has been on a watch list for upgrade along with Taiwan since September 2004.

"Chances for South Korea's promotion have been very high since the promotion in April of Israel, which was lower than South Korea in meeting conditions to be designated an advanced market," Kang Hyun-chul, an official of Woori Investment and Securities Co., said.

"With the promotion, long-term European investors, who have been conservative in investing in the Korean market, are expected to have an interest in it," a
researcher at Korea Investment and Securities Co. said.
Experts expect some US$4-5 billion of new funds to join the market sooner or later.
In London, a Korean financier said, "I was told that the FTSE chairman had said
Korea's promotion is 'optimistic' and that the promotion was decided on Tuesday."

Another financier said, "The atmosphere for is very affirmative. I bet on Korea's
upgrade 99.9 percent."