As of October 17, 2026, KRX hadn’t announced any constituent change for Korea’s flagship index on November 2, 2026. What is scheduled to take effect that day is a set of new rules. On September 28, 2026, the Korea Exchange (KRX) announced a revision to the methodology behind KOSPI 200, KOSDAQ 150, KRX 300, and the Korea Value-up Index, scheduled to take effect on November 2. Two things change: the sector map the indices are built on and what happens when a constituent disappears between reviews. Neither KRX’s notice nor the fund notices describe a trade on November 2. Both shape every trade after it. For how these indices are built in the first place, see the hub guide, How Korea’s Stock Indices Actually Get Built.
Key Takeaways
- Four indices, one date. KRX’s notice covers KOSPI 200, KOSDAQ 150, KRX 300, and the Korea Value-up Index, with an effective date of November 2, 2026, which KRX marks as scheduled.
- KOSPI 200’s ten sectors become nine. Its old scheme sorted stocks into ten groups based on GICS. The new one uses KRX’s own classification, KRICS, with nine sectors, including a new mobility sector for autos, parts, and passenger transport.
- No more reserve list. KOSPI 200 and KOSDAQ 150 stop keeping a ranked bench of replacement stocks. A constituent that leaves between reviews generally isn’t replaced until the next regular review.
- Mergers get a cleaner rule. When a constituent is absorbed by a listed company outside the index, the merged company takes its place instead of the next stock on the bench.
- The first real test comes in December. The November 2 notices list rule changes, not constituent changes. The December 2026 regular review, decided in November, is likely the first one to run on the new sector map, though KRX hasn’t said so explicitly.
Contents
- What KRX announced
- GICS-based sectors become nine KRICS sectors
- The end of the reserve list
- Mergers and new listings: the fine print
- What happens on November 2, and what waits for December
- What it means if you hold a Korea index fund
- Frequently asked questions
1. What KRX announced
The notice itself is short. KRX’s index notice of September 28, 2026 says the exchange is revising its benchmark index methodology for two reasons: to introduce its own industry classification, KRICS, and to abolish the reserve-stock system. It names four indices and gives the effective date as November 2, 2026, marked as scheduled. The detail sits in an attached rulebook.
The fund side spelled it out too. KB Asset Management, which runs ETFs tracking all four indices, posted the before-and-after rule text to its investors on October 2, 2026. Its notice for the KOSPI 200 and KOSDAQ 150 funds lists three changes, and its notice for the KRX 300 and Value-up funds lists one. That split matters:
- Sector classification changes for all four indices.
- The reserve list disappears for KOSPI 200 and KOSDAQ 150 only. KRX 300 never had one.
KB set an advance-notice period of October 2 to October 30, 2026. It also added a standard caveat: the schedule and content can change at the index provider’s discretion.
2. GICS-based sectors become nine KRICS sectors.
KOSPI 200 isn’t the 200 biggest companies on the main board. KRX first sorts the eligible stocks into sectors, then fills the index sector by sector. Change the sectors and you change what each stock is measured against.
Under the old KOSPI 200 rule, KRX sorted stocks into ten groups “with reference to” GICS, the classification S&P and MSCI maintain. Under the new one, it uses KRICS, the KRX Industry Classification Standard, which it unveiled on September 22, 2026.
| Old KOSPI 200 groups (GICS-based) | New KRICS sectors |
|---|---|
| Energy | Energy and Chemicals |
| Materials | Materials |
| Industrials | Industrials |
| Consumer Discretionary | Mobility |
| Consumer Staples | Consumer Goods |
| Health Care | Health Care |
| Financials and Real Estate | Financials and Real Estate |
| Information Technology | Information Technology |
| Communication Services | Media and Content |
| Utilities | (no separate sector) |
The rows aren’t a mapping. They’re two lists side by side. As of October 17, 2026, KRX hadn’t published a crosswalk or company-level classifications. It said it would start publishing the classifications on its index website on October 26, 2026.
What’s clearly new is the logic. According to Korean press coverage of the launch, KRICS groups autos, auto parts, and passenger transport into one mobility sector, on the idea that they share a business: moving people. It also breaks out industries that matter more in Korea than in a global scheme. Shipbuilding and batteries sit as separate industries under Industrials, semiconductors and displays under Information Technology, games and entertainment under Media and Content, and biotech under Health Care. Below the nine sectors there are 24 industry groups, 60 industries, and 129 sub-industries.
One detail is easy to get wrong. GICS itself has eleven sectors. KRX’s old KOSPI 200 scheme had ten because it combined financials and real estate. So for KOSPI 200 the change runs from ten groups to nine, not eleven to nine.
The timing rule moved too. Classification used to be fixed as of the review date. From November 2, it’s fixed as of the review base date, with a new escape hatch: if something happens between the base date and the regular change date that changes a company’s sector, KRX can adjust the classification and reflect it in that review.
Why this matters: a company that was a mid-sized fish in one GICS-based group can land in a smaller or bigger KRICS pond. Same company, same market cap, different competition for a seat.
3. The end of the reserve list
Under the old KOSPI 200 rule, every regular review produced a bench. For each sector, KRX ranked up to ten stocks that met the liquidity test but didn’t make the index by average daily market cap. When a constituent left between reviews, through a delisting, a designation, or a merger, the top-ranked reserve stock in the same sector came in. If the vacancy arose within a month of the next regular review, KRX could skip the replacement.
From November 2, there’s no bench. The revised text says KOSPI 200 and KOSDAQ 150 don’t select reserve stocks and that a constituent is removed or added under each rule. A KRX official told Financial News in September that the indices don’t need to hold exactly 200 or 150 names. If KOSPI 200 loses a stock, it runs at 199 until the next regular review brings it back to 200.
The same report gave two reasons. A reserve ranking set at one review could be months stale by the time it was used. And in mergers, the bench sometimes pulled in an unrelated stock while the company that actually carried on the business stayed out, only to be added at the next review. Index funds sold one name, bought a stand-in, then bought the merged business later. That’s KRX’s reasoning as the paper reported it. I have not seen KRX publish its own analysis.
For you, the trade-off is plain. Fewer forced trades between reviews, at the cost of an index that’s sometimes one or two names short.
4. Mergers and new listings: the fine print
Two merger cases get new wording, and a rule about new listings goes away.
A constituent absorbed by a listed company outside the index. The old rule swapped in the reserve stock on the day the constituent’s trading halted. The new rule swaps in the merged company on that day. If the merged company’s trading is suspended for 30 trading days or more, the swap waits until the trading day after it resumes. The index follows the business, not the bench.
One constituent absorbed by another. Before, KRX replaced the absorbed stock on its halt date, which meant a reserve stock came in. Now the absorbed stock is simply removed on its halt date, with no replacement. The new shares the merger will create are still added to the surviving company’s index share count in advance, as before.
New listings. The old rule had a counterweight. When a new listing was added to KOSPI 200 mid-cycle, the constituent with the smallest average market cap at the last regular review was removed to make room. That sentence is deleted. The fast-track entry for large new listings stays in the revised rulebook; only the removal goes. One reading is that a fast-track addition could take the index above 200 until the next review, but that’s my inference. KRX has not said so.
KRX kept one line from the old text: it can still shift the timing of a change for users’ convenience.
5. What happens on November 2, and what waits for December?
Neither KRX’s notice nor KB’s two notices lists a single constituent change for November 2. KB doesn’t describe how its funds’ holdings will change in practice. What starts on that date is a rulebook.
Sector classification is used mainly at selection, and most selection happens at the regular reviews. Those run twice a year. KRX decides them in May and November and puts them into effect the trading day after the June and December KOSPI 200 futures expiry. So the first review that’s likely to show the new sector map in action is the December 2026 one, decided in November. The reserve-list change is different: it applies to the next mid-cycle removal, whenever that happens after November 2.
Three dates are worth putting in a calendar:
- October 26, 2026: KRX has said it will start publishing KRICS classifications by company. That’s the first look at where each large stock lands.
- November 2, 2026: the revised rules are scheduled to take effect.
- November 2026: KRX announces the December regular review, the first expected to use KRICS sectors.
6. What it means if you hold a Korea index fund
If you own one of the KRX-listed ETFs that track KOSPI 200, you don’t need to do anything. The fund follows the index. The question is what it changes about the index you’re tracking.
The upside. Fewer mechanical trades. A merger should no longer push funds to sell a stock, buy a stand-in, then buy the merged business months later. A sector scheme built around Korea’s actual industries should make the sector-by-sector fill less arbitrary for a market where autos, batteries, and shipbuilding are large.
The downside. Less predictability for anyone trading around changes. Under the old rule, the next name in line was public. Under the new one, a vacancy sits open until the next review, and the December selection is expected to run on a map nobody has seen applied. Expect more uncertainty than usual around which stocks get in. The closing-auction mechanics on a rebalance day don’t change, but the list feeding them might.
What to watch. The KRICS data on October 26. If a large company moves into a sector where it’s suddenly one of the biggest, its odds of staying in the index improve. If it lands in a crowded sector, the reverse.
None of this touches foreign indices. MSCI and FTSE run their own Korea reviews on their own calendars, covered in The Other Rebalance Calendar.
7. Frequently asked questions
Is there a KOSPI 200 rebalance on November 2, 2026?
Not according to the notices. KRX’s announcement and KB Asset Management’s fund notices describe rule changes effective that day. Neither lists stocks entering or leaving the index.
Does this affect KRX 300?
Partly. KRX 300 and the Korea Value-up Index move to KRICS sectors. The reserve-list change does not apply to KRX 300, which never kept one.
Where can I see which KRICS sector a company is in?
KRX said it would publish first- and second-level KRICS classifications on its index website from October 26, 2026. KRICS is reviewed each April based on companies’ latest annual and audit reports, and listed companies and index users can ask KRX to review a classification.
Could the November 2 date move?
It could. KRX labels the date as scheduled, and KB’s notice says the schedule can change at the index provider’s discretion. I haven’t seen any postponement as of October 17, 2026.
Disclaimer: This article is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice. It describes the Korea Exchange’s index methodology revision as announced on September 28, 2026 and as reproduced in KB Asset Management’s fund notices of October 2, 2026; the full KRX rulebook may contain provisions not covered here. Index rules and effective dates can change. Check the index provider’s own notices or your fund’s documents, or speak with a qualified professional, before you act.
Last updated: October 19, 2026
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