Traditional industries make strides in market cap rank in conservative Korean market

The $10 billion market-cap club in South Korea has been realigned amid ebb of loose-liquidity environment, with traditional categories of steel, shipbuilding, and finance replacing the growth stocks of batteries, bio, internet, and games.

According to the Korea Exchange, 39 stocks had a market cap of over 10 trillion won ($7.8 billion) as of last Friday, missing two from the beginning of the year. Their market cap averaged at 33.19 trillion won, down 5.4 percent from early this year.

The composition has been shifted.

Growth stocks, including battery, bio, internet, and game names, dropped out of the rank.

SK bioscience lost half of its value from 17.56 trillion won to 9.40 trillion won during the period. Celltrion Healthcare, distributor of biosimilars, saw its value shrink from 12.43 trillion won to 8.65 trillion won. It yielded No. 1 rank on the Kosdaq to EcoPro BM.

NC Soft and Netmarble were missing from the rank, while Krafton remained the sole game stock, although its market cap thinned from 22.52 trillion won to 12.43 trillion won.

Battery firms also shriveled, with SK ie technology and POSCO Chemical dropping out of the threshold.

Hybe, representing the entertainment sector, also slipped out with its market cap sinking from 14.49 trillion won to 8.89 trillion won.

Internet firms, who had been disappointing with first-quarter earnings, backtracked.

Naver’s market cap decreased from 61.68 trillion won to 45.59 trillion won, while Kakao reporting decline in sales for the first time in five years shrank from 51.42 trillion won to 36.59 trillion won.

Traditional heavy industries returned in full force.

Korea Zinc and Hyundai Heavy Industries returned to the 10-trillion won club. Woori Financial Group and S-Oil also joined the club with their market cap climbing over the threshold.

“Growth stocks, which benefited in the low-rate environment, will suffer for the time being, while shipbuilders will go strong on shipping boom. Financial stocks would benefit from rising interest rates,” said Jeong Yong-taek, an economist at IBK Securities.

[ⓒ Maeil Business Newspaper & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]