Anna Jiwon Park has been covering the politics at The Korea Times since the summer of 2024, when she joined the press pool for the Office of the President in Korea. Prior to that, she spent about five years reporting extensively on financial markets, regulatory authorities and the financial industry. She joined The Korea Times in 2019 after spending eight years as a broadcast journalist at Arirang TV, Korea’s leading global broadcaster, covering politics, defense and culture.
Big tech, secondary battery and game stocks increase presence in Korean stock market in 2021
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By Anna J. Park
By Anna J. Park
Major shifts took place in the top 10 largest market cap companies on the benchmark KOSPI as well as secondary Kosdaq this year, as big tech companies, secondary battery manufacturers and game companies particularly grew their market presence.
According to the Korea Exchange (KRX), two major big tech companies Naver and Kakao both grew their market cap this year, with Naver moving up two notches to become the fourth largest firm by this measure on the KOSPI this year. Its main competitor Kakao also moved to fifth largest by market cap, up from ninth last year.
Naver's market cap increased to 63.1 trillion won ($53.2 billion), a 30 percent jump from 48.4 trillion won a year ago, while Kakao's soared to 52.3 trillion won, a 52 percent jump from 2020's 34.4 trillion won. The two companies fought for the third highest position a few months ago, but their stock prices fell during the second half of the year amid concerns over heightened regulations on big tech platform companies.
While the two internet companies' stock prices underwent a correction, Samsung Biologics' market cap surpassed that of Naver last week, snatching the coveted third position, after securing a manufacturing deal with Moderna.
Another major bio company Celltrion, however, lost its position in the top 10 list. The biopharmaceutical company was ranked fifth last year, but was relegated to 11th this year. Kakao Bank instead newly joined the top 10 rounding out the list.
The secondary battery sector was another main business that logged huge growth this year. Samsung SDI, which was 10th last year, advanced to seventh. LG Chem, however, fell back to the sixth, from third last year, as it faces an imminent public offering of its battery subsidiary LG Energy Solution next month.
On the Kosdaq market, secondary battery material manufacturer EcoProBM soared to second place in terms of market cap, from last year's seventh, closely chasing the top position maintained by Celltrion Healthcare. L&F, producer of active cathode core materials for lithium ion batteries, advanced to fourth, from last year's 20th.
The games sector also featured strongly on the Kosdaq. Game company Wemade's market cap increased more than eight-fold from last year, moving it into sixth from last year's 104th. Kakao Games' ranking also advanced from eighth last year to fifth this year.