The trading volume of the derivatives market soared in the first half from a year ago, recovering from years of decline on the back of a bullish stock market, the bourse operator said Tuesday.
  

The derivatives market had 338 trillion contracts in total in the January-June period, up 22 percent from a year ago, the Korea Exchange said.
  

Among them, KOSPI 200 options that track the nation's 200 largest shares on the main bourse posted a 9.1 percent on-year hike to 1.98 million contracts per day, while KOSPI 200 future's daily average edged down from 158,000 contracts to 152,000.
  

South Korea had been the world's top derivatives market by turnover until 2011, but its rank tumbled to 12th last year as tight access rules were adopted in 2012 to cool down the overheated market.
  

To shore up the anemic market, the bourse operator on Monday launched a mini-sized derivative market to offer contracts at one-fifth of the minimum price for the current contracts.
  

Market watchers express hope that the new trading system will inject new liquidity into the market that saw a sharp fall in turnover under strict entry rules.
  

"The mini options and futures trading will give some relief to the derivative market that suffered a sharp drop in trading activities over the past years," Lee Jung-ho, a researcher at Yuanta Securities Korea, said. "The smaller contract units will help more investors enter the derivative market."
  

Barriers still remain, they say, as it requires a deposit for investors to enter the market and the government is set to levy capital gain tax for derivatives starting from next year. (Yonhap)