SK square jumps after being lifted from investment warning list

Yonhap News

SK square Co., a leading e-commerce platform company under South Korea’s SK Group, saw its shares gain nearly 6 percent on Friday morning.

Shares of SK square were trading at 339,500 won ($234) as of 9:08 a.m., up 5.76 percent from the previous session.

Given that foreign securities firms such as Goldman Sachs and CLSA ranked high among the buying brokers, the rally appears to be driven mainly by foreign investors.

Earlier, the Korea Exchange announced that it had lifted the investment warning designation on SK square.

According to the exchange, the designation was removed because the stock met the required conditions, including the fact that its closing price on Wednesday – 10 trading days after the warning designation on December 11 – did not rise more than 45 percent compared with the closing price five days earlier.

Meanwhile, SK hynix, which was designated as an investment warning stock on the same day as SK square, did not meet the key requirements and therefore was not removed from the list.

The exchange is expected to reassess whether to lift the designation after market close on Friday.

SK hynix shares were trading at 595,000 won, up 1.19 percent.

Separately, Samsung Electronics Co. rose on Friday morning amid multiple positive factors, setting a new all-time high.

Samsung Electronics shares were trading at 114,800 won as of 9:33 a.m., up 3.33 percent from the previous session.

The stock climbed as high as 115,100 won, marking a new record high.

SK hynix also soared.

The gains are attributed to a combination of positive factors, including strength in the U.S. stock market in the previous session and expectations of benefits from government policies.

The government announced that it would temporarily suspend a 20 percent capital gains tax on overseas stock investments for one year, provided investors reinvest the proceeds into domestic equities.

Market participants said the measure could help channel funds into large-cap stocks, particularly semiconductor names viewed as long-term investments.

Samsung Electronics also drew buying interest on reports that it has successfully developed its own graphics processing unit, bolstering expectations of improved competitiveness in advanced computing markets.

SK square shares closed at 334,500 won on Friday, up 4.21 percent from the previous session. SK hynix ended 1.87 percent higher at 599,000 won while Samsung Electronics finished 5.31 percent higher at 117,000 won.