Market Expansion
The market capitalization of the Korea New Exchange (KONEX) surpassed 2 trillion won (US$1.83 billion).
The Korea Exchange (KRX) said on April 3 that the market value of the KONEX market reached 2.0974 trillion won (US$1.92 billion), hitting a record high.
Compared to that of the first day of market opening at 468.9 billion won (US$429.08 million) on July 1, 2013, the figure has more than quadrupled.
The market cap of the KONEX has been steadily increasing since it hit the 1 trillion won (US$915.08 million) mark on April last year. The average market value of each stock has also increased to 28.7 billion won (US$26.26 million) from 22.3 billion won (US$20.41 million) at the time of the opening.
The growth in market capitalization is mainly due to the increase in the number of stocks traded in the market and the rise in stock prices. The number of listed companies on the KONEX market increased to 73 from 21 in the beginning.
The average price of the stocks of its 73 listed companies has increased 206 percent from the first day.
The KONEX market is a stock market for smaller firms to support the Park Geun-hye administration's “creative economy” vision.
Even though the market is on the rise, it is falling short of the planned growth rate. Accordingly, critics say that the KRX is focusing only on quantitative expansion rather than providing company information to investors.
According to finance information provider WISEfn, there are no business analysis reports published by the 16 stock firms that are appointed consultants of the KONEX market this year. There were only 12 reports last year as well.
The KRX selected a stock firm that published only one business analysis report in 2013 as an excellent appointed consultant for two consecutive years, and excluded another stock firm that published 18 reports. It is said that the KRX awarded high marks for the efforts related to quantitative expansion, including the number of initial public offerings and the activation of stock trading.