Analysis of Top Performing Stocks in the Domestic Market in January
Rainbow Robotics Rises 95% Since the Beginning of the Year
[Asia Economy Reporter Hyungsoo Park] This year, stocks related to robots and artificial intelligence (AI) have shown a steep upward trend in the domestic stock market. This is thanks to their emergence as a key topic at the 'World's Largest Electronics and IT Exhibition CES 2023' and their recognition as future industries. Samsung Electronics' investment in the domestic robot company Rainbow Robotics at the beginning of the year also influenced investor sentiment in the robot sector. Among global IT companies, Microsoft (MS) actively integrating AI into daily life positively impacted AI-related stocks.
Samsung Electronics Investing in Robots, MS Integrating AI into Daily Life
According to the Korea Exchange, the stock with the highest increase in the domestic stock market through the 20th of this year is Rainbow Robotics. Its stock price rose 94.8% compared to the end of last year, and its market capitalization grew from 654 billion KRW to 1.274 trillion KRW. During this period, foreigners and individuals recorded net purchases of 22.1 billion KRW and 36 billion KRW respectively, driving the stock price up. Institutional investors took advantage of the price rise to record net sales of 42.4 billion KRW, realizing profits.
On the 11th, Samsung Electronics participated in a third-party allotment capital increase of Rainbow Robotics, acquiring 1.94 million new shares. The issue price was 30,400 KRW per share, totaling approximately 59 billion KRW. At the beginning of last year, Samsung Electronics upgraded its robot commercialization task force (TF) to a permanent robot business team. As Samsung Electronics began investing seriously in the robot business, investor interest in the robot industry increased.
Researcher Jaehyuk Woo of Mirae Asset Securities explained, "Labor is becoming scarce and wages are steadily rising," adding, "Using robots is becoming not a choice but a necessity for multi-product small-quantity production and productivity expansion." He further stated, "The service robot and collaborative robot markets are still in the early stages, and companies with multiple performance records have a competitive advantage," and "Companies that secure diverse user experience data will grow rapidly."
As expectations grow that robot demand will increase in the domestic stock market, stocks such as Neuromeka (82.3%), Tirayutek (57.7%), Hurim Robotics (56.0%), and Robostar (48.0%) have also risen sharply this year.
Among the top gainers, AI-related stocks stand out alongside robots. Researcher Jongwook Lee of Samsung Securities analyzed, "CES 2023 heralded generative AI as a new productivity innovation." He also added, "People actively seek technology in times of crisis," explaining, "During prosperous times, there is no need to change well-functioning technology, but in recessions, people tend to gamble on new technologies."
"People Actively Seek Technology in Times of Crisis"
Microsoft, which plans to reduce its workforce by 10,000 employees, is sparing no investment to secure AI technology. It is considering investing 12 trillion KRW in AI research company OpenAI and officially launched the 'Azure OpenAI Service.' MS introduced that the latest AI models such as GPT-3.5, Codex, and DALL-E 2 are available on Azure.
As MS actively embraces AI, Google has also decided to showcase its AI competitiveness in earnest. Following news that MS will apply OpenAI's ChatGPT to its search engine 'Bing,' there are expectations that Google will reveal its AI technology at its annual event in May this year. Google plans to unveil about 20 AI-related projects this year.
With fierce competition among global IT companies surrounding AI, expectations are growing that the AI-related market will expand domestically as well. AI technology development is accelerating, and many companies are expected to utilize AI. Conan Technology, in which SK Telecom is the second-largest shareholder, saw its stock price rise 81.2% this year. Known for its advanced technology in search engines and unstructured big data analysis, Conan Technology continues its technical cooperation with SK Telecom.
Among the companies listed among the top gainers, Alchera (77.5%), Selvas AI (77.1%), Saltlux (65.1%), and Open Edge Technology (64.6%) were also identified as AI-related stocks.
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