what are the korean composite stock price indexes 
korean composite stock price indexes kospi refers to a series of indexes that track the overall korean stock exchange and its components each of the kospi indexes are capitalization weighted market averages the best known of these indexes is the kospi 200 which comprises the 200 largest publicly traded common stocks traded in korea tracking roughly 70 of the market value of the overall korean stock exchange 1 the kospi 200 is used as a rough benchmark when investors or traders refer to the performance of the korean exchange for this reason and because its components are large cap stocks people compare the kospi 200 to the s p 500 in the united states as of 2021 major kospi 200 components included consumer product maker samsung electronics hyundai motor semiconductor manufacturer sk hynix utility provider korea electric power and shinhan bank 2 understanding the korean composite stock price indexesthe korean composite stock price indexes kospi first debuted in the early 1980s with several variants rolled out in subsequent years including the kospi 100 which focused on mid caps and the kospi 50 which represents small caps the kospi also refers to a family of indices tracking specific industries including chemicals and banks and the kodi index which specializes in dividend stocks also the kospi appears on several other products that track the prices of futures options and sovereign bonds note that while kospi refers to the entire family of indexes many market participants call the kospi 200 simply the kospi history of the kospi 200the kospi 200 began trading at the start of january in 1983 at a value of 122 52 1 its base value indexed to january 4 1980 is 100 the kospi 200 rose more than 8 fold to a value of more than 1 000 by april of 1989 roughly two years following the asian financial crisis the index value surged to 1 997 06 by its 30th birthday at the end of 2012 trailing only the hong kong stock exchange and taiwan stock exchange over the same time frame the kospi 200 index stood at roughly 2 470 by mid 2018 up more than 20 fold since its introduction 3 notable dates for the kospi include june 17 1988 when it gained about 8 5 its largest one day percentage gain it also fell more than 12 on september 12 2001 the day following the 9 11 terrorist attack in the u s the index closed above 2 000 for the first time on july 24 2007 3 analysts market participants and the international financial news media all follow the kospi 200 to varying degrees u s based news outlets such as the wall street journal and bloomberg as well as london based reuters owned by canada based thomson reuters often quote the index and use its values when reporting on market events in korea 