Down From Eight to Three
It has been found that the number of Korean companies in the top 500 global market capitalization club dropped to three at the end of August of this year from eight at the end of 2010.
As of the end of last month, Samsung Electronics ranked 13th in the list, followed by SK Hynix (285th) and Hyundai Motor (480th) according to global high market cap rankers released by the Korea Exchange on September 4.
Samsung Electronics hovered around 43rd place at the end of 2010, and soared thanks to a semiconductor boom this year. SK Hynix surged to 285th from 805th place at the end of 2010. Hyundai Motor once peaked at 167th place at the end of 2012 but has since slid steadily. POSCO (219th), Hyundai Heavy Industries (300th), Hyundai Mobis (371st), and LG Chem (405th) were included in the top 500 list at the end of 2010 but failed to make the top 500 list at the end of August, this year. "The market capitalization of the automobile, steel, chemical, and heavy industries, except the semiconductor industry, is stagnating or declining," the Korea Exchange said.
By nationality, top six companies were US companies with Apple at the top and 195 of the top 500 were US companies. The US was followed by China with 44 companies including Alibaba (7th) and Tencent (8th). American companies account for nearly half (48.3%) of the top 500 companies. The combined percentage of the US (48.3%) and China (10.8%) is 59.1% of the total.
By exchange, the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) of the US had the largest number of 149, but the top five were dominated by NASDAQ-listed firms. Apple has kept its number one position for the 5th consecutive year with its market capitalization of US$843.7 billion while ExxonMobil, which stood first at the end of 2010, came in 10th. While Amazon jumped to fifth place, Wal-Mart fell to 19th place, showing that distribution power is moving from offline companies to online sellers.