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.
Stock prices of MSCI Korea Index's newly-added firms rise Friday
MSCI logo / Reuters-Yonhap
By Anna J. Park
By Anna J. Park
Six new companies were added to the Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) Korea Index on Friday, and most of them saw their stock prices increase during the day's trading.
According to MSCI's Semi-Annual Index Review, the six companies ― game companies Krafton and Kakao Games, battery materials maker L&F, electric foil manufacturer Iljin Materials, biopharmaceutical firm SD BioSensor and apparel retailer F&F ― have been included in the index, based on its own criteria of the firms' market caps and market liquidity.
Five of the newly added companies, except F&F, saw their share prices rise on Friday.
SD BioSensor shares increased the most, rising 11.82 percent, followed by L&F which rose 6.15 percent. Kakao Games shares rose 4.19 percent, while Iljin Materials increased 1.4 percent and Krafton rose 1.3 percent. F&F shares decreased 1.6 percent.
With the addition of the six firms, Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering (DSME), Shinsegae and Fila Holdings will be deleted from the index. The change will take effect from the close on Nov. 30. Until then, high demand for the newly added stocks is expected from global passive funds that track the index.
The MSCI Korea Index is designed to measure the performance of the large and mid-cap segments of the Korean market. The index covers about 85 percent of the Korean equity market.