Market cap of 10 conglomerates soars 29 trillion won so far this year

The market cap of South Korea's top 10 business groups listed on the main bourse has gained 29.1 trillion won ($25.8 billion) so far this year, a 4.26 percent jump from the end of last year, strongly led by Samsung Group companies, data showed Sunday.

The 10 conglomerates' market cap reached 712.2 trillion won as of Friday, accounting for 51.2 percent of the total, according to the data from market tracker WISEfn.

South Korea's No. 1 conglomerate, Samsung Group, increased its share value by 5.41 percent, or 17.4 trillion won, over the cited period to 340.3 trillion won. Samsung Electronics, the group's mainstay affiliate and the world's biggest maker of handsets, alone added 20 trillion won to the conglomerate's market cap, with some affiliates suffering losses. The shares of the tech mammoth recovered to the 1.5-million-won level for the first time in 16 months last week.

Shares of Samsung SDI Co. and Samsung Electro-Mechanics Co. also soared 22.84 percent and 42.96 percent, respectively, over the cited period.

LG Group, which holds LG Electronics Inc. and LG Display Co. under its wing, raised its market cap to 71.2 trillion won as of Friday, up 9.03 percent from end-2014. The market cap of affiliates under SK Group moved up 3.34 percent to 93.9 trillion won.

Hyundai Motor Group managed a comparatively smaller 0.63 gain as shares of Kia Motors Corp. and Hyundai Glovis Co., the logistics arm of Hyundai Motor, turned out to be laggards.

POSCO Group was the sole loser in market cap, surrendering 6.27 percent, apparently affected by the start of a prosecution investigation into its construction unit on suspicions of operating a slush fund overseas. (Yonhap)