Dominant Players
The Korea Exchange announced on July 9 that the market capitalization of the 10 largest business groups in South Korea exceeded 50% of the aggregate value of the stocks listed on the local stock market.
As of July 6, the 10 groups’ market cap totaled 907.2 trillion won (US$816 billion) and the aggregate value of the stocks listed on the market was 1.767 quadrillion won (US$1.59 trilion). The ratio rose from 49.73% to 51.33% between the end of last year and July 6 this year. At the end of 2016, the 10 groups’ market cap was 750.9 trillion won (US$675 billion).
The aggregate market values of Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix showed a significant increase based on the recent boom in the semiconductor industry. Specifically, that of Samsung Electronics increased 60.5 trillion won (US$54 billion) to 314 trillion won (US$282 billion) and that of SK Hynix increased 17 trillion won (US$15 billion) to 48.485 trillion won (US$43 billion). That of LG Electronics increased by 4.2 trillion won (US$3.7 billion) to 12.1 trillion won (US$10.8 billion), too.
As a result, the aggregate market values of the Samsung, SK and LG Groups showed an average growth of 20.82% while the aggregate value of the stocks listed on the local stock market rose by 17.04%. The market capitalization of the Samsung Group as a whole increased 97 trillion won (US$87 billion) to 491.8 trillion won (US$442 billion), that of the SK Group increased 24.9 trillion won (US$22 billion) to 115.1 trillion won (US$103 billion) and the LG Group’s showed an increase of approximately 16.9 trillion won (US$15 trillion). On the contrary, those of the Hyundai Motor Group and the Lotte Group edged up 0.18% and rose by 11.53% and the Doosan Group’s fell by 400 billion won (US$360 million) to 11 trillion won (US$9.9 billion).