Market cap of listed firms jumps 14% in Q1

The total market capitalization of listed firms in Korea rose by 14 percent, or 280 trillion won ($212 billion), during the first quarter of 2023, a report by issued by market tracker Korea CXO Institute showed Wednesday.

As the local stock market has been on course for a gradual rebound in the first three months of 2023, the total market cap of 2,558 firms listed on the country’s benchmark Kospi and secondary Kosdaq increased by 280 trillion won, from 2,011 trillion won on Jan. 2 to 2,291 trillion won on March 31. The figures exclude the value of preferred shares.

The report said 1,729 firms on the list saw an increase in their market caps, while 774 firms saw a drop. Another 55 maintained their market size during the period.

In the first quarter, 33 companies saw an increase in their market caps worth 1 trillion won or more. Among the 33, four firms saw an increase over 10 trillion won, including South Korean tech giant Samsung Electronics, battery manufacturer LG Energy Solution, battery material firm EcoPro BM and its holdings company EcoPro.

Samsung Electronics saw an increase of 50.74 trillion won in its market cap, from 331.32 trillion won to 382.66 trillion won. It held the largest market cap throughout the period.

Contract manufacturer Samsung Biologics saw the biggest drop in the same period. Its market cap fell from 58.86 trillion won to 56.85 trillion won, seeing a loss of more than 2 trillion won.

LG Household & Health Care, HD Hyundai Heavy Industries, Samsung Life, biopharmaceutical giant Celltrion and NCSoft experienced losses in their market cap of 1 trillion won or more.

The growth of secondary cell-related companies stood out in the first quarter.

LG Energy Solution, which made a hot debut in early 2022 with a megasized initial public offering, kept the No. 2 spot during the period. Its market cap stood at 136.65 trillion won as of March 31, up 32 trillion won from the start of the year.

Battery material firm EcoPro and its affiliate EcoPro BM saw an increase over 10 trillion won. Stocks of the EcoPro family have been skyrocketing over the past few months, wooed by retail investors. EcoPro BM’s market size increased from 9.13 trillion won to 21.95 trillion won.

Tech-related companies have been performing well, the report showed.

The market cap of Rainbow Robotics, a humanoids robotics company in which Samsung Electronics has been securing a stake, nearly quadrupled, from 547.1 billion won to 2.41 trillion won during the first quarter.