While the contaminated egg scare continues to grip South Korea, the stocks related to eggs have bounced back. Those that had briefly benefited from the crisis, such as vaccine makers, stopped short of its rally last week.
Stocks related to eggs had seen their prices dragged down by the insecticide-contaminated eggs found on farms across the country for days, but started regaining towards the end of the week.
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(Yonhap) |
SPC Samlip, the nation’s largest breadmaker listed on the top-tier Kospi, recovered 3.68 percent to close at 155,000 won ($136) Friday, while the second-tier Kosdaq-listed egg distributor CJ Freshway rose 2.46 percent.
Upon revelation on Monday night that the government had found eggs tainted by chemicals such as fipronil and bifenthrin, largely used to prevent the poultry red mite in egg farms, stocks of SPC Samlip and CJ Freshway had plunged 6.65 percent and 3.42 percent Wednesday, respectively. The stock market did not operate on Tuesday for a national holiday. SPC Samlip hit a 52-week low at 147,000 won Wednesday, while CJ Freshway sustained the loss for two consecutive days with a 0.99 percent drop Thursday.
As of Friday, the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs found a total of 49 farms that sold eggs with chemical traces after the inspections on all 1,239 farms.
Meanwhile, shares that benefited from the egg fiasco did not maintain the rally until the end of the week.
Sajodaerim, the processed fishery product maker, retreated 0.93 percent, continuing losses for two straight days after a 9.38 percent rise Wednesday.
Daehan New Pharm, a poultry vaccine maker, edged up 0.4 percent Friday. On Thursday, its price surged 11.45 percent upon the news that it had developed a solution to control poultry red mites without using chemicals.
By Son Ji-hyoung (
consnow@heraldcorp.com)
