[Special Stock] Cellid and Related Stocks Surge on Fears of COVID-19 Resurgence in Greater China

COVID-19-themed stocks such as Cellid are showing strong gains in early trading.

As of 9:12 a.m. on May 22, Cellid, a COVID-19 vaccine developer, was trading at 6,160 won, up 18.46% (960 won) from the previous day. Related theme stocks such as Genexine Life Science (up 9.85%) and The Biomed (up 15.34%), a diagnostic kit company, are also showing strong performance across the board.

The surge in these stocks appears to be driven by renewed fears of a global infectious disease outbreak, which has affected investor sentiment. In addition to the Nipah virus, which mainly occurs in Southeast Asia and India and was newly designated as a class 1 infectious disease, it has recently been confirmed that COVID-19 is spreading again in Greater China. Even in Taiwan, which was regarded as a model country for quarantine during the pandemic, the number of confirmed cases is rapidly increasing.

Adding to this, on May 20, highly pathogenic avian influenza (H5N1) was detected at two traditional poultry markets in Gwangsan-gu, Gwangju Metropolitan City, further fueling buying sentiment. The Biomed is currently developing a high-sensitivity PCR-based AI diagnostic kit that can be applied to avian, mammalian, and human samples.