According to a report released by the Korea Securities Depository on Wednesday, the number of shareholders in about 2,727 listed companies stood at 1.46 million.
As the number of listed companies increased 1.5 percent and shareholders grew 2.3 percent from a year earlier, investors held a total of about 117.4 billion shares, averaging 8,066 shares each.
Some 812 companies were listed on the country's benchmark KOSPI, 1,802 on the junior KOSDAQ, and 113 on KONEX, a board under KOSDAQ for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and venture companies.
The number of investors on KOSPI rose 1.0 percent to 12.61 million, while those on KOSDAQ increased 5.7 percent to 8.55 million. KONEX remained near 50,000, almost unchanged from a year earlier.
Individuals made up 99.1 percent of investors, with corporations at 0.4 percent and foreigners at 0.2 percent.
About 25 percent of investors held shares in Samsung Electronics, making it the most widely owned stock with 4.61 million shareholders, followed by Kakao (1.60 million), SK hynix (1.19 million), Naver (1.16 million), and Doosan Enerbility (1.11 million).
On KOSDAQ, EcoPro BM ranked first with 508,908 shareholders, followed by EcoPro (488,951), SemiFive (411,562), Alteogen (274,634), and Hurim Robot (250,313).
The number of companies in which foreigners owned more than 50 percent of shares rose by six from a year earlier to 38, evenly split between KOSPI and KOSDAQ with 19 each.
Foreign investors held the largest stakes in S-Oil (74.3 percent), KB Financial Group (72.2 percent), and Hana Financial Group (67 percent).
By age, those in their 50s were the largest group of individual shareholders with 3.33 million, accounting for 23.1 percent, followed by those in their 40s with 3.12 million and those in their 60s with 2.20 million. By gender, male investors accounted for 51.5 percent, while female investors made up 48.5 percent.
Among regions, Gyeonggi Province had the highest number of investors, followed by Seoul and Busan.
About 4.59 million investors or 31.5 percent owned shares in only one company, 2.43 million or 16.7 percent held shares in two companies, and 1.55 million or 10.7 percent held shares in three or more.
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