[Featured Stock] Emart Rises 4% on Strong Earnings Performance

[Asia Economy Reporter Oh Ju-yeon] Although the growth rate of large discount stores in Korea decreased by about 10% year-on-year in February due to the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19), it is considered relatively strong compared to department stores and duty-free shops. Among large discount stores, Emart's strong performance has been highlighted, leading to a rise in its stock price.

As of 10:30 AM on the 6th, Emart was trading at 110,000 KRW, up 3.77% from the previous trading day. During the morning session, the stock price rose as much as 4.72%, reaching 111,000 KRW.

Emart's transaction amount in February was 1.13 trillion KRW, and despite the impact of COVID-19 and differences in the Lunar New Year timing, it only decreased by 3.6% year-on-year, which is considered a strong performance.

Jo Yong-seon, a researcher at SK Securities, explained, "This was due to the strong performance of the large discount store channel driven by increased demand for daily necessities." He added, "Not only did the offline large discount store channel, centered on essential consumer goods such as food and daily necessities, perform relatively well, but SSG.com, which is strong in essential SKU sourcing in e-commerce, also showed high growth."

Researcher Jo said, "Among the distribution industry, the strong performance of large discount stores, especially Emart, was even more remarkable," and upgraded the investment opinion to 'Buy' while maintaining the target stock price at 135,000 KRW.