Amid
As the KOSDAQ stock index suffered a sharp downward correction, the number of KOSDAQ-listed firms with a market capitalization of 1 trillion won (US$896.86 million) or more has also decreased sharply. The figure reached an all-time high in April this year but has fallen by 30 percent in just three months.
According to the Korea Exchange (KRX), the number of trillion won KOSDAQ companies came to 31 as of July 3. The figure showed a steep decline compared to early this year. In April, the figure hit an all-time high of 44. However, it dropped by 13 in just three months as the KOSDAQ market went through a correction.
The KOSDAQ index reached 930 at the end of January but then fell to 900 in April and 880 in June. The index closed at 795.71 on July 3, up 0.75 percent from the previous trading day. It showed a whopping 16 percent decline from the previous high point.
Some experts attribute the decline to the absence of blue-chip companies newly listed on the KOSDAQ market. Early this year, cafe24 Corp., the first company to go public under the so-called Tesla standards, and Kolon TissueGene Inc. joined the 1 trillion won club right after their listing. But there have been no such firms since then. Except the two, no companies with a market capitalization of more than one trillion won (US$896.86 million) have been listed in the past year.
As the number of trillion won companies has dropped, the number of bio firms that belong to the club has greatly reduced as well. The figure dropped from 20 in April to the current 10.