Korea’s main stock market, the KOSPI, had its best ever dividend year in 2015, with a total shareholder bonus reaching a record high, Korea Exchange said Monday.

According to the bourse operator, nearly 70 percent, or 492, of 719 listed firms with their fiscal year ending in December will pay, or have already paid, a combined 19.1 trillion won ($16.6 billion) in cash dividends to shareholders by the end of April.

The amount represents an increase of 27 percent from 2014, when 66 percent of the KOSPI-listed firms gave out a combined 15 trillion won to shareholders.

The stocks’ average dividend yield -- the percentage of dividend against the stock’s market price -- came in at 1.74 percent, KRX said.

Among some of the biggest capitulations, Samsung Electronics, the country’s top-cap stock, distributed 2.9 trillion won to its shareholders in January, while the state-run Korea Electric Power Corp. surprised the market with a 2 trillion won dividend scheme for the year 2015, its largest allotment to date.

Despite recent hikes, Korean dividend payments are still meager compared to their global peers, analysts say.

The payout ratio, the proportion of earnings paid out as dividends to shareholders of Korean stocks included in Morgan Stanley Capital International index is 19.4 percent in 2015, far below the global average of 44.6 percent. Korea also lags far behind China and Japan, whose stocks on the MSCI index logged dividend payout ratios of over 30 percent.

“Korean stocks have ample room for dividend growth, as perception toward shareholder returns improves and the government encourages local firms to boost dividend payments,” said Kim Sang-ho, analyst of Mirae Asset Daewoo Securities in Seoul.

By Lee Sun-young (milaya@heraldcorp.com)