South korea: South Korea's smaller KOSDAQ emerged as the second-best-performing stock index globally over the past month, following only the country's benchmark KOSPI. This performance comes amid government initiatives aimed at boosting the secondary market, as reported by Yonhap Infomax, the financial arm of Yonhap News Agency.

According to Yonhap News Agency, the KOSDAQ index surged by 16.45 percent, climbing from 949.81 points on January 13 to 1,106.08 points as of Friday. This growth placed it ahead of SET and ISE-100, the benchmark indexes of Thailand and Turkey, which saw respective increases of 16.05 percent and 15.71 percent over the same period.

In contrast, the KOSDAQ significantly outperformed major U.S. markets. The tech-heavy Nasdaq experienced a decline of 4.79 percent, while the S and P 500 saw a slight decrease of 2.07 percent over the month.

South Korea's benchmark KOSPI was the best-performing stock index globally, with a notable jump of 19.07 percent during this period.

Lee Sung-hoon, an analyst from Kiwoom Securities, noted that the KOSDAQ's rise has been largely driven by investments in exchange-traded funds holding companies in the secondary market. This is fueled by expectations that the government's policy focus will increasingly shift towards the KOSDAQ.

The government has introduced various measures to bolster the venture-heavy KOSDAQ as part of its initiative to transition into productive finance. These measures include expanding public investments in the secondary market and tightening delisting rules to remove troubled companies that have hindered the junior market's growth.

A significant development is taking place at the National Assembly, where a ruling Democratic Party lawmaker proposed a bill to transform all functions related to the KOSDAQ market at the Korea Exchange into an independent subsidiary. This move aims to elevate the secondary market to a stature comparable to that of Nasdaq in the United States.

Jeong Eui-hyun, an analyst from Mirae Asset Securities, highlighted that the main goal of the government's measures is to create a structural foundation for institutional investors to engage with the KOSDAQ market. He added that these measures could potentially normalize both liquidity and valuation within the secondary market.