Number of KOSDAQ Firms with Market Cap of One Trillion Won or More Decreases

As the KOSDAQ stock index has been suffering a sharp drop from last month, the number of KOSDAQ-listed firms with a market capitalization of 1 trillion won (US$882.61 million) or more is on the decrease.

According to the Korea Exchange (KRX) on November 14, the number of companies with a market cap of at least 1 trillion won (US$882.61 million) in the KOSDAQ market came to 27. The figure hit an all-time high of 44 early this year. However, it dropped by 17 in just 11 months, reaching the lowest level this year.

Celltrion Healthcare Co. showed the largest market cap in the stock exchange with 8.8 trillion won (US$7.76 billion), followed by SillaJen Inc. with 4.82 trillion won (US$4.26 billion), CJ ENM Corp. with 4.53 trillion won (US$4 billion), POSCO Chemtech Co. with 4.41 trillion won (US$3.89 billion) and HLB Co. with 3.24 trillion won (US$2.86 billion)..

There were 10 biotech companies in the 1-trillion market-cap club on the KOSDAQ market, still in the mainstream. In addition, entertainment companies, such as SM Entertainment Co. and JYP Entertainment Corp., joined the club again as their share prices skyrocketed.

Semiconductor manufacturers and game developers, which saw their stock prices plunge, failed to join the club. With a controversy over the semiconductor boom that has started early this year, Wonik IPS Co., Soulbrain Co. and EO Technics Co. disappeared from the list.

Game companies also failed to make the 1-trillion list due to the delays of new product release and sluggish market. In particular, the market cap of Webzen Co. soared to 1.36 trillion won (US$1.2 billion) in January but it now halved to 590 billion won (US$520.74 million).

This was also largely due to the decline to the absence of blue-chip companies newly listed on the KOSDAQ market. As the listing barriers have been lowered with the government’s KOSDAQ revitalization policy, cafe24 Corp., the first company to go public under the so-called Tesla standards, was listed early this year. However, no companies with a market cap of over one trillion won (US$896.86 million) have been listed in the past year.
 

The securities industry expects that the number of trillion won KOSDAQ companies will fall further as there are no momentum to boost the KOSDAQ index for now.