Virus No Bar to Goldman Seeing Korea Stocks’ Best Year in Five

Strategists predict the Kospi index will gain the most this year since 2010 as a weaker currency boosts profits at exporters, overshadowing the impact on consumer spending from a deadly virus.

The benchmark gauge for South Korea’s $1.3 trillion equity market will rise an additional 5.8 percent to 2,219 from Wednesday’s close, according to the average forecast in a Bloomberg survey of 10 strategists at firms from Goldman Sachs Group Inc. to Samsung Securities Co. That target implies a 16 percent gain by the index for the whole year, after the gauge fell 4.8 percent in 2014.