Shift Up stock surges on Kospi debut

[Courtesy of Shift Up]

Shift Up, known for its popular game “Goddess of Victory: Nike,” soared on their first day of trading on the Kospi Thursday morning, opening at 1.4 times its IPO price. The stock was trading at 81,900 won ($59.4) by 9:09 a.m., up 36.50 percent from its IPO price of 60,000 won. At this price, Shift Up’s market capitalization hit 4.75 trillion won, surpassing NCSoft’s market cap of 4.1888 trillion won.

Meanwhile, leading semiconductor stocks such as Samsung Electronics and SK hynix hit new 52-week highs in early trading, buoyed by a strong performance in the U.S. semiconductor sector overnight. SK hynix stocks were trading at 246,500 won as of 9:20 a.m., up 7,500 won (3.14 percent) from the previous day, while Samsung Electronics stocks were at 88,500 won, up 700 won (0.80 percent).

In contrast, HB Technology, which was designated for possible listing as a non-compliant disclosure corporation, saw its stock drop more than 6 percent in early trading. HB Technology stocks were trading at 3,710 won by 9:51 a.m., down 265 won (6.67 percent) after falling as much as 10.94 percent to 3,540 won earlier in the session.

HB Technology supplies glass substrate inspection equipment to a subsidiary of SKC that is working on commercializing glass substrates. The stock surged 25.86 percent on July 9th, 2024m to hit a record high. However, the Korea Exchange noted significant discrepancies between the company’s preliminary earnings and its audited financial statements, saying that if HB Technology is officially designated as a non-compliant disclosure corporation, trading could be suspended for one day when it accrues more than 8 penalty points in a year. The decision on this designation will be made by August 2nd, 2024.

Following the disclosure issues, HB Technology’s stock hit the lower limit in after-hours trading the previous day, falling 9.93 percent from its closing price. The company initially reported an operating profit of 30.9 billion won for 2023 in February 2024 but revised this to a 22 billion won operating loss a month later.