On the 20th, the National Office and Financial Service Labor Union's securities division immediately urged the Financial Services Commission to withdraw its plan reported at the National Planning Committee briefing to extend exchange trading hours until 8 p.m.
The financial union's securities division said, "We want to ask the Financial Services Commission what is the relationship between resolving the Korea discount and extending trading hours," adding, "It has been confirmed that the 30-minute extension of trading hours implemented during the previous Park Geun-hye administration had no correlation with stock prices and trading volumes, and only extended the working hours of innocent securities workers."
The financial union's securities division expressed concern that the trading hour extension proposal carries more serious issues.
The financial union's securities division noted that the Financial Services Commission stated that to align with the alternative exchange launched in March, trading hours should be extended to 8 p.m., adding, "Now, there should be an explanation of what problems arise with the current different trading hours, but there has been no report that includes such content."
Meanwhile, trading is possible until 8 p.m. at the current alternative exchange, but there is no closing price calculation function, so the opening price for the next day is still determined based on the exchange's closing price at 3:30 p.m.
In response, the securities division expressed concern, saying, "If the trading hours are extended to 8 p.m. as per the Financial Services Commission's plan, the price calculations for funds and various accounting tasks that start after the closing price determination will inevitably continue into the early morning of the next day," and added, "Our securities workers will be forced into a horrific working environment."
Furthermore, the division emphasized, "Leaving aside the suffering of securities workers, I want to ask what benefit it brings to the national economy to have the entire nation watch stock prices all day long," urging the Financial Services Commission to immediately abolish the trading hour extension proposal that has no practical benefit and support amendments to commercial law to address the chronic problem that has created the Korea discount.