By Kim Tae-gyu
Staff Reporter
Over the first 10 months of this year, Korean corporations have chalked up dramatic upturns on stock markets as the global financial turmoil has shown clear signs of stabilizing.
The largest 30 companies listed on the Korea Exchange by market capitalization racked up more than a 40 percent jump on average in their equity prices over the period.
But there were losers, which saw their value head down during the bullish run ― six entities out of the top 30 players have struggled in negative territory, including Hyundai Merchant Marine, Hyundai Heavy Industries and SK Telecom.
Shares of Hyundai Merchant, the country's second-largest shipper, dipped 34.1 percent over the January to October period from 37,100 won to 24,450 won due to uncertainty in the global shipping industry.
Hyundai Heavy, the world's primary shipbuilder, saw its share prices decrease 16.8 percent from 199,500 won to 166,000 won.
Other underachievers included SK Telecom, Korea's foremost wireless operator, which fell 13.2 percent, tobacco maker KT&G with a 12.6 percent decrease, S-Oil with a 6.2 percent drop and chemical maker OCI Company with 3.6 percent fall.
Of note are SK Telecom and KT&G, which stayed strong last year despite the global financial distress.
``Tobacco and telecom companies are defensive stocks, which remain resilient when the economy is in a recession. Hence, SK Telecom and KT&G fared well last year,'' a Seoul analyst said.
``Yet, they have been relatively weak this year as the economy gets back on track. It is a normal feature of defensive stocks during the brisk change of a business cycle,'' he said.
Otherwise known as the non-cyclical stocks, defensive stocks include ones related to food, oil, utilities and tobacco. They typically show stable profit, regardless of the business cycle.
Accordingly, they tend to outperform the market during economic slumps but face mediocre results when it recovers.
In comparison to the six losers, four large-cap companies saw their stock prices more than double this year.
The share prices of LG Chem, the No. 1 chemistry company by sales in Asia's fourth-largest economy, almost tripled from 71,000 won to 207,500 won through October.
Hyundai Motor, the leading automobile maker here, came in second with a 177.2 percent appreciation followed by Woori Financial Group with a 159.1 percent surge and Hyundai Mobis with a 154.4 percent increase.
Samsung Electronics, dubbed as the nation's bluest blue chip with the highest market capitalization, also enjoyed a 60.3 percent rise during the period from 451,000 won to 723,000 won.
Samsung's cross-city rival LG Electronics posted a 49.7-percent leap this year from 74,800 won to 112,000 won while Iron-making giant POSCO experienced a 32.6-percent rise from 380,000 won to 504,000 won.