SEOUL, Jan 12 (Reuters) - South Korea's financial regulator said it will lift its ban on short selling of listed shares starting March 15.

The Financial Services Commission (FSC) said in a statement late on Monday that the current ban on short selling of shares on the Kospi and Kosdaq that has been in place since March 13 of last year will be removed.

The trading restriction was aimed at curbing speculative trading amid the widening fallout from the coronavirus outbreak early last year.

From March's lows, the benchmark Kospi index has surged almost 120% in the steepest rally in years as investors look towards a broad recovery in Asia's fourth-largest economy. (Reporting by Cynthia Kim, Seunggyu Lim; Editing by Christopher Cushing)