The headquarters of Samsung Group in southern Seoul. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, July 13 (Korea Bizwire) – The market value of listed firms in South Korea jumped nearly 19 percent in the first half of 2023 amid a bullish stock market, with Samsung Electronics Co. retaining its top-cap status, a corporate tracker said Thursday.
The market capitalization of 2,599 companies listed on the country’s main and secondary bourses totaled 2,388 trillion won (US$1.87 trillion) as of end-June, up 18.7 percent, or 377 trillion won, from the start of the year, according to the data from the Korea CXO Institute.
Of the total, 68.1 percent, or 1,769 firms, saw their market value rise over the cited period, with 51 registering gains of 1 trillion won or more.
In contrast, 30.7 percent, or 798 companies, suffered declines, with the market capitalization of 32 businesses remaining unchanged.
The number of companies with a market cap of 1 trillion won or more came to 256, up 28 from the start of the year.
Samsung Electronics, the world’s top memory chip and smartphone maker, had the largest market value of 431.02 trillion won as of end-June, up 99.7 trillion won from the end of January.
Leading car battery maker LG Energy Solution was the runner-up with a market cap of 129.40 trillion won, which was about 25 trillion won more than six months earlier.
Other big gainers include chip giant SK hynix Inc. (28.8 trillion won), top secondary battery materials maker EcoPro Co. (17.3 trillion won) and No. 2 automaker Kia Corp. (10.65 trillion won).
In contrast, biotech titan Samsung Biologics Co. saw its market value dip by 5.91 trillion won over the cited period, with LG Household & Health Care Ltd. and leading game publisher NCsoft Corp. shedding 4.08 trillion won and 2.99 trillion won, respectively.
EcoPro, which jumped to 17th place in the first half, chalked off the biggest increase rate of 624 percent, with its market cap soaring to 20.08 trillion won from 2.77 trillion won in the six-month period.
(Yonhap)
