South Korea's Korea Exchange designated 36 stocks across the Kospi and Kosdaq markets as watchlist items on August 12 after they breached tougher minimum share-price or market-cap rules, with 30 names newly added and six already on the watchlist assigned additional grounds. Nine of the stocks were from the Kospi and 27 from the Kosdaq, while Ontide, Hyungji Global and E8 failed both tests. The tighter regime, unveiled by the Financial Services Commission in February and applied from July 1, places companies on the watchlist when their closing price stays below 1,000 won for 30 straight trading days or their market capitalization remains under 30 billion won on the Kospi or 20 billion won on the Kosdaq for the same period; delisting follows if they fail to meet the standards for at least 45 of the next 90 trading days. Shaperon said a reverse stock split approved at an extraordinary shareholders' meeting should remove its designation reason once relisting is completed at the end of September, while NH Investment & Securities said forcing out marginal companies could lift combined operating profit for Kosdaq-listed firms last year to 18.8 trillion won from 14.1 trillion won and cut their price-to-earnings ratio to 31.3 from 112.6.