KOSPI Market Cap Shakeup Reignites

Semiconductor Decline and Aftermath of New Stock Listings

[Asia Economy Reporter Song Hwajeong] As the stock market continues to show a generally weak trend, competition for market capitalization rankings is intensifying due to increased stock price differentiation by individual stocks and the listing of new stocks.

As of 9:25 a.m. on the 13th, SK Hynix was trading at 100,000 won, down 500 won (0.5%) from the previous day. Naver (NAVER) was down 0.57% at 438,000 won. The market cap gap between the two companies is about 850 billion won. Although Naver, which started higher, briefly overtook SK Hynix to take second place early in the session, it turned downward and fell back to third place.

The market cap gap between SK Hynix and Naver was over 13 trillion won earlier this month, but SK Hynix’s stock price has recently fallen sharply, significantly reducing its market cap. SK Hynix has declined for six consecutive trading days through the previous day, dropping 16.94% during this period. In the same period, Naver rose 1.73%.

The competition for fourth place is also fierce. This morning, Samsung Biologics rose and overtook the weak Kakao to move into fourth place. Based on the previous day’s closing price, the market cap gap between the two companies was 1.2455 trillion won, but the gap narrowed as their stock prices diverged today. Samsung Biologics, which was sixth earlier this month, has recently risen in stock price, overtaking fifth-place LG Chem and now competing with Kakao for fourth place. The market cap gap between Samsung Biologics and Kakao was about 3.9 trillion won earlier this month.

KakaoBank and Kia, which entered the KOSPI on the 6th, are fiercely competing for the 10th spot. KakaoBank, which ranked 11th on its first day of listing, surged again on the second day to reach ninth place. On the third day, it fell 9%, dropping back to 11th, then reclaimed 10th place, but lost the 10th spot to Kia the previous day. Today, KakaoBank rose more than 4%, while Kia fell nearly 2%, allowing KakaoBank to regain 10th place.

With increasing stock price differentiation by individual stocks and small market cap gaps, frequent position changes are expected for the time being. In particular, whether the second place in market cap will change is drawing attention. SK Hynix, which has held the second spot since November 2014, briefly lost it to Samsung Biologics in August last year. Now, after a year, its hold on second place appears precarious. Song Myungseop, a researcher at Hi Investment & Securities, said, "We are lowering SK Hynix’s target price from the previous 160,000 won to 125,000 won," adding, "The global liquidity growth rate compared to the same period last year, which has moved in line with SK Hynix’s valuation multiples, and the relative strength of the U.S. ISM manufacturing index appear to have entered a downward trend cycle. The memory semiconductor market is also expected to enter a recession soon, so it is judged inappropriate to apply above-average valuation multiples for SK Hynix’s target price estimation for the time being."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.