![\"AI-generated](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/news-p.v1.20260505.72c03a4b58414686860666e44811f70a_P1.png\"\/ "\\"Korea's")
AI-generated image to aid understanding of the article. Tool provided by ChatGPT.<\/p>\nAI-generated image to aid understanding of the article. Tool provided by ChatGPT.<\/p>\n
The number of “emperor stocks” \u2014 shares trading above 1 million won \u2014 has surged amid the KOSPI’s rally, significantly reshaping Korea’s stock market landscape and raising the possibility of stock splits to improve investor accessibility.<\/p>\n
Emperor Stocks Grow from 4 to 9; Hyosung Heavy Industries Tops the List<\/p>\n
According to the Korea Exchange on Wednesday, the number of stocks trading above 1 million won based on the previous day’s closing price has grown from four at the end of last year to nine currently.<\/p>\n
At the end of last year, emperor stocks were limited to just four names: Hyosung Heavy Industries, Samsung Biologics (207940.KS), Korea Zinc, and Samyang Foods. This year, Doosan, Hanwha Aerospace (012450.KS), SK hynix (000660.KS), HD Hyundai Electric, and Taekwang Industrial have joined the ranks.<\/p>\n
High-priced stocks have rapidly increased as the KOSPI continues its daily rally.<\/p>\n
The most expensive stock is Hyosung Heavy Industries by a wide margin. Hyosung Heavy Industries closed the previous session at 4.228 million won, up 316,000 won or 8.08%, marking the highest price among domestically listed companies. Analysts attribute the rise to expectations of expanding demand for power equipment and transformers.<\/p>\n
The high-priced stock lineup continues with Doosan (1.705 million won), Korea Zinc (1.629 million won), Samsung Biologics (1.485 million won), Hanwha Aerospace (1.465 million won), and SK hynix (1.447 million won).<\/p>\n
Samyang Foods (1.316 million won), HD Hyundai Electric (1.299 million won), and Taekwang Industrial (1.19 million won) also remain in the 1-million-won range.<\/p>\n
“I’m Next” \u2014 Emperor Stock Candidates Line Up; What About Retail Accessibility?<\/p>\n
The pool of emperor stock candidates is also growing rapidly. SK Square rose to 998,000 won during intraday trading, approaching the 1-million-won threshold, while LIG Nex1 Defense & Aerospace recently climbed to 1.118 million won intraday, raising expectations of re-entry.<\/p>\n
Samsung Electro-Mechanics is also mentioned as the “next emperor stock,” having more than tripled this year from the 250,000-won range to the 900,000-won range.<\/p>\n
The market expects that if the stock rally continues, more emperor stocks are likely to emerge.<\/p>\n
The issue is accessibility. Since Korean stocks are traded in single-share units, the higher the price, the greater the barrier for individual investors. For instance, buying just one share of Hyosung Heavy Industries requires more than 4 million won.<\/p>\n
Stocks in the 1-million-won range also pose a considerable burden in terms of portfolio diversification. For this reason, some point out that “the expansion of high-priced stocks could alienate individual investors from the market.”<\/p>\n
Stock Split Expectations: Could Another “People’s Stock” Emerge?<\/p>\n
Stock splits are being discussed as an alternative to ease this burden.<\/p>\n
A stock split lowers the per-share price without changing corporate value, thereby improving investor accessibility and boosting trading activity.<\/p>\n
A representative example is Samsung Electronics (005930.KS). Once an emperor stock trading in the 2-million-won range, Samsung Electronics became a “people’s stock” as individual investors flooded in following its 50-for-1 stock split in 2018. Lotte Chilsung Beverage and Lotte Confectionery also lowered their price thresholds through stock splits.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AI-generated image to aid understanding of the article. Tool provided by ChatGPT. The number of “emperor stocks” \u2014…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3403,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[457],"tags":[3063,3065,678,337,278,864,989,276,3064],"class_list":["post-3402","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-korea-exchange","tag-emperor-stocks","tag-high-priced-stocks","tag-hyosung-heavy-industries","tag-korea-exchange","tag-kospi-rally","tag-krx","tag-retail-investors","tag-samsung-electronics","tag-stock-split"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3402","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3402"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3402\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3403"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}