KOSPI Market Cap 3rd Place Battle Heats Up... Chasing 'Samba' and Being Chased by 'Naver'

Foreigners Buy Samba, Sell Naver
Samba Rises 4.63% in a Month While Naver Falls 0.51%
Market Cap Gap Narrows Further

[Asia Economy Reporter Song Hwajeong] While Samsung Biologics' stock price has continued to rise recently, NAVER has shown relatively weak performance, intensifying the competition for the 3rd largest market capitalization on the KOSPI. Samsung Biologics has significantly narrowed the market cap gap with NAVER due to its recent stock price increase, and if the current price trend continues, Samsung Biologics is expected to rise to 3rd place.

As of 9:15 AM on the 16th, Samsung Biologics was trading at 938,000 KRW, up 34,000 KRW (3.76%) from the previous day. At the same time, NAVER also showed a 1.42% increase, but due to the difference in the rise, the market cap gap narrowed further from about 3.8 trillion KRW the previous day to around 2.5 trillion KRW.

Samsung Biologics rose 4.63% over the past month, recovering the 900,000 KRW level. In contrast, NAVER fell 0.51% during the same period. The market cap gap between the two companies shrank from over 10 trillion KRW a month ago to the 3 trillion KRW range.

In the case of Samsung Biologics, foreign and institutional buying continued to flow in recently, while NAVER experienced continuous net selling by foreigners. Over the past month, foreigners net sold NAVER by 178 billion KRW, making it the second most sold stock after SK Square. Foreigners have net sold NAVER for six consecutive trading days until the previous day. On the other hand, Samsung Biologics saw net buying of 72.6 billion KRW. During the same period, institutions bought 115 billion KRW of Samsung Biologics but net sold 83.3 billion KRW of NAVER.

Recently, Samsung Biologics' receipt of manufacturing approval for the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine positively impacted its stock price. On the 13th, the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety approved the manufacturing item license for ‘Spikevax’ produced by Samsung Biologics, as applied for by Moderna Korea. Spikevax is the same vaccine as the U.S. Moderna’s ‘Moderna Spikevax’. Samsung Biologics has a contract manufacturing organization (CMO) agreement with Moderna, importing and supplying the active pharmaceutical ingredient (DS) to produce the finished Moderna COVID-19 vaccine (DP). Park Jaekyung, a researcher at Hana Financial Investment, said, "Even in the phased recovery to normal life (With Corona), CMO demand is expected to remain steady, and rapid expansion will prove the demand."

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