Margin call amounts in South Korea's stock market exceeded 324 billion won last week.

South Korea's stock market has seen intensified volatility recently, with risks from leveraged trading starting to surface en masse. According to data from FreeSIS, the Korea Financial Investment Association, the total value of actual reverse transactions conducted by South Korean securities firms for unsettled funds last week (July 6 to July 10) stood at approximately 324.095 billion won. This is about 32% higher than the average of roughly 244.921 billion won over the prior five weeks, marking a week of notable elevated pressure. Compared with the relatively calm week of June 15 to June 19, last week’s figure was roughly five times that level. In terms of daily data, forced liquidation pressure in South Korea’s stock market intensified significantly on July 9. That day’s actual reverse transaction value hit around 142.197 billion won, accounting for 10.2% of unsettled funds, the highest of the week. On July 10, the amount remained at approximately 81.613 billion won, with a 5.7% share. The three preceding trading days saw figures of 39.698 billion won, 31.741 billion won, and 28.846 billion won respectively. The so-called "reverse transactions" refer to cases where, after investors buy stocks using margin or unsettled funds, if they fail to top up funds in a timely manner, securities firms will forcibly sell the relevant stocks in accordance with rules. This data is not equivalent to the number of margin liquidation cases, but it reflects the scale of forced liquidation of leveraged accounts during market downturns. Analysts note that when the index experiences consecutive corrections and individual stock declines widen, margin accounts and short-term trading accounts are more likely to face margin calls or forced liquidation pressure. If market sentiment continues to weaken, reverse transactions could further amplify intraday volatility, creating a vicious cycle of "declines → forced liquidations → further declines".