LG, SK Outperform Samsung, Hyundai Motor in Stocks
By Park Hyong-ki
Staff Reporter
The LG and SK groups have shown sharp rises in their respective market capitalization since the turn of this year, while Samsung and Hyundai Motor have been faltering, according to the Korea Exchange.
Buoyed by record earnings in the third quarter for flagships LG Electronics and LG.Philips LCD, LG, the nation's fourth largest conglomerate, has bulked up its market cap to 64 trillion won as of the end of last week, up from 37.6 trillion at the start of the year.
Of the 12 listed units of the group, the market cap of LG Chem gained the highest from 8.8 trillion won to 13.2 trillion won. The country's biggest chemical maker posted strong earnings on rising demand for plastics. Its shares closed up 2,000 won, or 1.66 percent, at 122,000 won last Friday.
LG Electronics and LG.Philips followed, enjoying high gains with market caps reaching 13.2 trillion won and 14.8 trillion won, respectively.
Along with LG, listed affiliates of SK Group saw their market cap grow to 53.3 trillion won, up 36 percent, spurred by the group's re-listings of SK Holdings and SK Energy after it adopted the holding company system. This pushed SK up the group rankings to No. 3, surpassing Hyundai-Kia Automotive Group.
In contrast, Samsung affiliates managed to post a 17 percent gain in market cap at 166.2 trillion won during the same period.
The growth was less than the average gain of 31 percent for all listed companies on the exchange. Although some of its affiliates such as Samsung Heavy Industries and Samsung Securities performed well on rosy shipbuilding business and M&A speculation driven by the capital market integration bill, Samsung Electronics weighed down the group's growth.
Samsung Electronics' market cap fell by 14 trillion won to 88.8 trillion won on Friday as its share prices remain in the doldrums.
Hyundai-Kia Group is in the same situation as Samsung. The group used to go head-to-head with LG, but amid slow growth of Hyundai Motor and Kia Motors, the conglomerate's overall market cap increased only 10 percent to 40 trillion won. Hyundai Steel was the only affiliate that saw its market cap rise, hitting 7.2 trillion won from 2.8 trillion won.