[Featured Stock] Kakao Games Soars with 'Odin's Rush'... Hits 52-Week High

[Asia Economy Reporter Ji Yeon-jin] Kakao Games surged more than 9% during trading on the 16th, hitting a new 52-week high.

On that day, Kakao Games soared to 89,200 KRW at around 10:42 AM, up 9.85% from the previous day. This is a 52-week high. The stock has been on an upward trend since it surged more than 27% on the 2nd of this month, following news that its new game "Odin: Valhalla Rising" ranked first in sales on the Google Play Store.

The surge on this day is also interpreted as being due to Odin generating higher sales than NCSoft's popular mobile games, "Lineage M" and "Lineage 2M," which were previously dominant in the mobile game market.

NCSoft also rose more than 3% from the previous day as its new game "Blade & Soul 2" is expected to be released soon.

However, NH Investment & Securities forecasted NCSoft's second-quarter sales to decrease by 0.2% year-on-year to 539.8 billion KRW, and operating profit to drop 36.8% to 132 billion KRW, lowering the target stock price from 1.25 million KRW to 1.05 million KRW.

Researcher Ahn Jae-min of NH Investment & Securities stated, "With the success of Kakao Games' 'Odin,' the sales rankings of 'Lineage M' and 'Lineage 2M' have declined, and user attrition has appeared, raising concerns about a decrease in sales."