Last Year, Market Cap of 249 Trillion Lost... 7 out of 10 Listed Companies Declined

CXO Research Institute Surveys 2,749 Listed Companies...
'1 Trillion Won Club' Shrinks by 19
Samsung Electronics Remains No. 1... 6 New Entrants Including HD Hyundai Heavy Industries in the Top 20
HD Hyundai Electric Leads with 408.1% Market Cap Growth Rate

Last year, the domestic market capitalization decreased by 249 trillion won, and it was found that the market capitalization of 7 out of 10 listed companies declined over the past year. Samsung Electronics maintained its top position, but the fortunes of industries and companies sharply diverged, with rankings changing for 6 out of the top 20 companies.

May 5, Samsung Electronics Seocho Building, Seocho-gu, Seoul. Photo by Jo Yong-jun

The Korea CXO Research Institute, specializing in corporate analysis, announced on the 13th that after investigating 2,749 domestic listed companies excluding preferred stocks, the market capitalization decreased by 9.9%, from 2,503 trillion won on January 2 last year to 2,254 trillion won on the 2nd of this year. It was found that 1,904 listed companies (69.3%) experienced a decrease in market capitalization over the past year.

The number of listed companies in the '1 trillion won club' dropped by 19, from 259 to 240. This was even fewer than the 246 companies in January the year before last.

Last year, 56 listed companies saw their market capitalization increase by more than 1 trillion won. Among them, 7 companies expanded their market capitalization by over 10 trillion won.

Among individual stock items, SK Hynix increased from 103.6675 trillion won to 124.634 trillion won, nearly a 21 trillion won increase. HD Hyundai Heavy Industries (up 14.3812 trillion won), HD Hyundai Electric (up 11.7838 trillion won), Alteogen (up 11.2207 trillion won), KB Financial Group (up 11.192 trillion won), Samsung Biologics (up 10.3202 trillion won), and Hanwha Aerospace (up 10.002 trillion won) also grew by more than 10 trillion won.

Samsung Electronics saw about 150 trillion won evaporate from its market capitalization. It decreased by 156.4083 trillion won over the year, from 475.1946 trillion won at the beginning of last year to 318.7863 trillion won at the start of this year.

Excluding Samsung Electronics, there were 50 more companies whose market capitalization decreased by over 1 trillion won. Market capitalization dropped by more than 10 trillion won for companies such as POSCO Holdings (down 20.6146 trillion won), LG Energy Solution (down 19.539 trillion won), LG Chem (down 17.7186 trillion won), EcoPro BM (down 17.4086 trillion won), POSCO Future M (down 16.5848 trillion won), and Samsung SDI (down 15.6439 trillion won).

Among the '1 trillion won club' listed companies, 24 recorded a market capitalization growth rate of over 100%. Among them, HD Hyundai Electric had the highest growth rate at 408.1%.

The rankings of the top market capitalization companies fluctuated. Among the 'Top 20' companies, Samsung Electronics (1st), SK Hynix (2nd), LG Energy Solution (3rd), Samsung Biologics (4th), and Hyundai Motor (5th) maintained their positions, but the rankings of the other companies changed. Among these, HD Hyundai Heavy Industries (36th to 10th), Meritz Financial Group (33rd to 15th), Korea Zinc (41st to 16th), Samsung Life Insurance (24th to 17th), Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance (31st to 19th), and SK Innovation (22nd to 20th) newly entered the top 20. Companies that dropped include EcoPro (19th to 55th), EcoPro BM (12th to 42nd), POSCO Future M (13th to 40th), LG Electronics (20th to 30th), Samsung SDI (11th to 23rd), and Kakao (14th to 21st).

New entrants to the top 100 include Samyang Foods (163rd to 64th), HD Hyundai Electric (114th to 29th), LS ELECTRIC (141st to 67th), Ligand Chem Bio (161st to 88th), Samchundang Pharmaceutical (159th to 99th), Alteogen (84th to 26th), LIG Nex1 (116th to 63rd), and Hyundai Rotem (112th to 62nd).

Oh Il-seon, director of the Korea CXO Research Institute, said, "While some stocks in shipbuilding, shipping, finance, and pharmaceuticals saw market capitalization increase due to rising stock prices, sectors such as secondary batteries, construction, steel, and chemicals experienced a strong cold wave, clearly revealing the temperature differences among industries' stocks."