At the end of 2011, foreign ownership of domestic exchange-listed shares accounted for KRW 351.5 trillion, just over 30% of the total market capitalization of KRW 1,148 trillion. By comparison, in 1992, when the domestic stock market was first opened to foreign investors, that figure was just KRW 4.1 trillion. The percentage of domestic shares owned by foreign investors steadily climbed until it hit a peak of 42.1% in July of 2004. However, starting in 2005, foreign ownership has been on a generally downward trend as a percentage of the market, owing in large part to the 2008 financial crisis, rallies of equities in emerging markets, and global investor portfolio adjustments. It is, however, witnessed for past few years that foreign ownership have started to go up again at a slower pace. It is also worth knowing that the quantitative easing in the US and Europe'€™s LTRO efforts spurred a shift in liquidity toward capital markets, which will possibly lead to a worldwide stock rally.