South Korea is world’s worst major equity market in ’19

Bloomberg

South Korean equities overtook those of Malaysia to become the world’s worst major equity market for the year as ongoing trade war with Japan and
tensions between the US and China slashed the nation’s earnings outlook.
The benchmark Kospi Index has dropped 6.1 percent year-to-date compared with 5.1 percent decline in the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI Index in Singapore. China’s yuan sinking beyond 7 per dollar for the first time in more than a decade fuelled fresh offloading of equities in Korea, whose economy relies heavily on export. Analysts have responded by cutting their earnings-per-share estimates for the next 12 months.