AhnLab Hits Record High Then Drops 'Reversal'... Volatile Ahn Cheol-soo Stock

Ahn Cheol-soo, the chairman of the transition committee, and Kim Byung-joon, the chairman of the Special Committee on Regional Balanced Development, attended the secretariat meeting held at the transition committee office in Tongui-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul on the 22nd, and were talking before the meeting started. Photo by Yoon Dong-joo doso7@

[Asia Economy Reporter Ji Yeon-jin] Stocks related to Ahn Cheol-soo, chairman of the Presidential Transition Committee, are sharply falling on the 24th. After surging due to speculation about Ahn becoming Prime Minister, the stocks are now experiencing a steep decline.

AhnLab soared during the day to 218,500 KRW, up 24.29% from the previous day, hitting a 52-week high, but has since dropped sharply. It even fell more than 7% intraday. As of 11 a.m., the stock price is trading at 168,500 KRW, down 4.15% from the previous day. At the same time, Sunny Electronics is also down 8.44% from the previous day, trading at 4,395 KRW.

AhnLab is a security company founded by Chairman Ahn, who still holds 1.86 million shares (18.6% stake) in the company. If Ahn assumes the Prime Minister position, he must place his AhnLab shares in a blind trust with a financial institution. Due to this, the possibility of stock sales or hostile mergers and acquisitions (M&A) was raised, causing the stock price to rise continuously. From the 16th, the stock rose for five consecutive days, with a cumulative increase of 95.33%.

Notably, foreign investors recorded net purchases for five consecutive days starting from the 14th. The cumulative net purchase amount during this period was 142 billion KRW. JP Morgan Securities disclosed on the 21st that it held 538,878 shares of AhnLab for simple investment purposes. Following this, AhnLab surged to the daily limit the previous day and rose 20% again in early trading on this day.

However, the stock reversed to a decline during the day and is widening its losses. This appears to be influenced by Kwon Seong-dong, a member of the People Power Party and a close aide to President-elect Yoon Seok-youl, denying the Prime Minister speculation about Chairman Ahn the day before.

Sunny Electronics was grouped as a stock related to Ahn Cheol-soo because former CEO Song Tae-jong is an AhnLab alumnus, and it surged nearly 40% over five days starting from the 16th.