The trading volume of South Korea's gold market soared in the first half this year, largely as pandemic-incurred uncertainties boosted individuals' demand for safe assets, the local exchange said Thursday.

The average daily trading volume of gold in the Korea Exchange (KRX) jumped 19.4 percent on-year to 126.2 kilograms in the January-June period, according to the bourse operator's data. Its cumulated gold trading volume in the six-month period stood at 15.5 tons.

The average daily turnover increased 13.8 percent to 8.26 billion won ($7.2 million), or 1.16 trillion won in total, during the same period.

The KRX's cumulated gold turnover surpassed 4 trillion won for the first time since it launched an independent gold exchange in March 2014.

The KRX said its annual gold turnover grew 82 percent every year over the six years, growing faster compared with its global peers.

It said investor demand for safe assets, such as gold, increased, citing investor worries about the spreading new coronavirus and its variants, high volatility in cryptocurrencies and lingering uncertainties about the Sino-American diplomatic tussle.

The KRX noted that the rising popularity of gold trading among young investors also invigorated the local gold trading market. About 51.8 percent of the trading accounts of individuals belonged to those in their 20s and 30s.

Financial gains from KRX's gold trading comes with zero tax, which helped young investors choose the KRX over other gold exchanges here, according to the exchange.

As of end-June, a gram of gold traded at 64,120 won on the KRX market, down 3.4 percent from a year earlier but up 3 percent from this year's lowest 62,300 won on March 5. (Yonhap)