Market cap of top 100 firms gains 10.8% over past year

South Korea's top 100 companies have seen their total market capitalization swell nearly 11 percent over the past one-year period, a corporate tracker said Wednesday.

The combined market value of those leading firms came to 2,128 trillion won ($1.78 trillion) as of Jan. 3 this year, up 10.8 percent from a year earlier, according to Korea CXO Institute.

The number of listed firms with a market cap of 1 trillion won or more stood at 288, up 54 from a year earlier.

Global tech behemoth Samsung Electronics Co. topped the market cap list with 469.2 trillion won, followed by chip giant SK hynix Inc. with 93.5 trillion won and internet portal titan Naver with 61.7 trillion won.

Hyundai Motor Co., South Korea's leading automaker, came in sixth with 45 trillion won, with its smaller affiliate Kia Corp. ranking ninth with 33.5 trillion won.

Kakao Corp., the operator of South Korea's top mobile messenger KakaoTalk, registered the largest increase of 16 trillion won over the cited period, with its market value rising to 51 trillion won this year from 35 trillion won.

Naver came next with a market value hike of 13.6 trillion won, followed by K-pop superstars BTS' management firm Hybe with 8.9 trillion won and top shipper HMM Co. with 7.9 trillion won.

In contrast, Samsung Electronics chalked up the biggest decline of about 26 trillion won, trailed by biopharmaceutical giant Celltrion Inc. with 19.5 trillion won and No. 1 chemical maker LG Chem Ltd. with 19.1 trillion won, according to the institute. (Yonhap)