SK hynix sees 30% surge in market cap in Q1

SK hynix headquarters in Icheon, Gyeonggi Province (Newsis)

South Korea’s total market cap increased by nearly 100 trillion won ($72 billion) during the first quarter of this year, backed by jumps in stock prices in key industries, including semiconductors, data showed Tuesday.

According to a report from local corporate tracker Korea CXO Institute, the combined market cap of 2,692 local firms jumped 96 trillion won during the January-March period to reach 2,599 trillion won. The figures exclude the value of preferred shares.

The number of stocks with a total market cap of 1 trillion won in the period grew from 259 at the beginning of the year to 263 at the end of March. Eighteen new stocks joined the "1 trillion-won club" while 14 stocks were removed, with their market cap declining below 1 trillion won.

As the global semiconductors industry is on course for a rebound, SK hynix, the world's second-largest memory chip maker saw the biggest market cap growth of 28.5 percent from January to the end of March, growing from 103.6 trillion won to 133.2 trillion won.

Samsung Electronics, the world's top memory chip maker and the country's largest conglomerate by market cap, also witnessed its total market cap edge up by 3.5 percent to 491.9 trillion won.

Other companies that saw a market cap increase during the period include Celltrion, rising by 7.7 trillion won, Hanmi Semiconductor by 7.09 trillion won, HLB by 6.88 trillion won and Hyundai Motor by 6.87 trillion won.

Seven firms joined the top 100, including HD Hyundai Electric, SKC and Enchem.

The market cap of LG Energy Solution, on the other hand, marked the biggest decrease of 8.07 trillion won in the first quarter, from 100.5 trillion won to 92.4 trillion won.

Naver's market cap also decreased by 6.5 trillion won, while Posco Holdings and Ecopro Materials also saw their market cap decline by 5.5 trillion won and 4.7 trillion won, respectively. The market cap of LG Chem and Posco Future M also decreased by 3.8 trillion won and 3.7 trillion won, respectively.

Combining the market cap of affiliates, Samsung Group topped the list, growing 36.3 trillion won in the three months to reach 754.5 trillion won. SK Group beat LG Group to grab the No. 2 spot, with its market cap amounting to 207.7 trillion won. LG Group saw its market cap decrease by 6.7 percent to 177.3 trillion won, while Hyundai Motor Group's market cap grew by 10.5 percent to 152.5 trillion won.

By Jo He-rim(herim@heraldcorp.com)