K-OTC Kicked Off to a Good Start

The Korea Financial Investment Association (KOFIA) Over-the-Counter Market recorded 177.923 million shares in trading volume and 353.02 million won in trading amount on its first day, August 25. The purpose of the K-OTC is to facilitate the trading of unlisted shares and better protect investors.

Shares of a total of 104 unlisted companies are traded on the K-OTC, including 56 newly designated companies and existing Free Board companies. The former posted 166.81 million shares and 332.94 million won while the latter recorded 11.1 million shares and 20.07 million won on that day.

The first-day performance is not bad in that the daily average Free Board trading volume is 80 million won (US$78,557) this year. In particular, the former category, filled mainly with major unlisted stocks, accounted for over 94 percent of the trading volume to make a breakthrough in the over-the-counter market that has been sluggish for a long while.

Samsung SDS, the stock with the highest market cap in the K-OTC, was traded at 238,000 won (US$233) per share, while the standard price is 47,500 won (US$46.64). Thirty-six Samsung SDS shares were traded on opening day. In the meantime, 4,672 Mirae Asset Securities shares were traded to record a trading amount of 39.81 million won (US$39,096).

Tomorrow’s Newspaper posted an amount of 169.59 million won (US$166,472), followed by POSCO E&C (18.49 million won, US$18,158, 258 shares), SK E&C (1.61 million won, US$1,581, 65 shares), and LS Cable and System (900,000 won, US$884, 15 shares). The KOFIA is planning to add some new entries to the K-OTC on a regular basis starting next month.