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.
Food stocks enjoy rallies after 'Parasite's Oscar wins
By Anna J. Park
With the foreign language film 'Parasite' winning a historic four Oscars earlier this month, one of the beneficiaries of the buzz around the film is stocks in Korean food companies that produce items related to the film.
Those who watched the film would remember the iconic scene, where Mrs. Park ― played by actress Cho Yeo-jeong ― asked her housekeeper Mrs. Kim to make a bowl of “Chapaguri” ― a twin ramen recipe mixing both black-bean sauce flavored “Chapaghetti” and seafood flavored spicy “Neoguri” ― and finishes the dish quickly.
Thanks to such powerful imagery in the multi-award-winning film, food conglomerate Nongshim, the producer of long-time bestselling instant noodles “Chapaghetti” and “Neoguri,” has seen its stock price soaring since the film started winning awards.
By Anna J. Park
As the film won the four Oscars on Feb. 9, the stock price went up by 10.5 percent from 232,500 won ($196.35) on Feb. 7 to 257,000 on Feb. 14. The stock also continued its rally Monday, finishing at 260,000 won, up 1.17 percent from the previous close.
Another food manufacturer CJ Cheiljedang, a subsidiary of CJ holding company, also saw its stock price rise by 13.3 percent from 243,500 on Feb. 7 to 276,000 on Feb. 14, as CJ ENM, another affiliate of CJ holdings, receives media spotlight as the Bong Joon-ho film's main investor and distributor.
Shim Ji-hyeon, analyst at eBest Investment & Securities told The Korea Times that Nongshim's stock price increase is definitely in relation to the film's popularity, while CJ Cheiljledang's rise has other factors involved as well.
“It seems obvious that Nongshim's price hike has been attributed to the film's success. The food company's revenue result of the last quarter also falls into the expected market consensus range,” Shim said.
“In addition, Nongshim has put forth its key strategy of promoting content-based exposures by proactively using SNS to lead trends among young generations around the globe. All these effects have generated the stock's current rally,” she continued, adding that the case of CJ Cheiljedang seems to be more impacted by its positive revenue announcement than the film's success.
In a report Monday, Hana Financial Investment expects that Nongshim's revenue and operation profit will increase by 6.5 percent and 31.6 percent, , respectively, this year from a year ago.
The report also forecast that the sales in the U.S. by Korea's major food manufacturers, such as CJ Cheiljedang, Nongshim, Pulmuone and Samyang, will increase by 25.8 percent, 12.3 percent, 12.1 percent and 40.9 percent, respectively, based on improved brand awareness in the U.S. market.