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.
EcoPro Materials, Hanjin KAL join MSCI Korea index
The MSCI logo / Reuters-Yonhap
By Anna J. Park
EcoPro Materials stocks soar at closing
EcoPro Materials' stock price soared during Tuesday's trading session, following its new addition to the MSCI Korea Index, which was announced earlier in the day.
According to the Korea Exchange (KRX), the stock price of the secondary battery materials producer ended at 209,500 won ($157). a 21.87 percent jump from the previous session.
Hanjin KAL, which also made the list alongside EcoPro Materials on Tuesday, ended at 75,600 won, a 1.18 percent fall from the previous trading session.
The rebalancing of the global benchmark index is slated to take place at the end of the month. While the two stocks will be newly added to the index, F&F, Hotel Shilla, JYP Entertainment, Pearl Abyss and Hyundai Mipo Dockyard will be excluded from the global benchmark index next month.
Altogether, 99 stocks will constitute the Korea index from next month, covering about 85 percent of the country's entire equity market.
The MSCI Korea Index is designed to measure the performance of both the large- and mid-cap sectors of the Korean stock market. MSCI changes index constituents four times a year, including semiannual reviews taking place in May and November, as well as quarterly reviews in February and August.
As a number of global equity funds closely track the index, market analysts expect international demand for the two stocks will further increase. Particularly, EcoPro Materials is expected to experience a global influx of fund money worth approximately 158 billion won. Hanjin KAL's stock is also expected to receive about 119 billion won worth of capital inflow.
"The inclusion of EcoPro Materials in this MSCI addition is assessed to have an impact on the supply and demand dynamics of growth stocks, including the secondary battery sector," Han Ji-young, analyst at Kiwoom Securities, said.
Meanwhile, Doosan Robotics and Hyundai AutoEver, two other major candidates for the MSCI addition, failed to make the list this time. Kim Dong-young, Samsung Securities' analyst, said the continued "poor performances of the stock prices of both companies seem to have hindered them from meeting the criteria."
Kim also explained that the recent market responses to MSCI events have been the result of "drastic market demand coupled with rapid price increases of expected candidates for the index inclusion" starting to show one to two months prior to the regular review announcement.
Additionally, Eugene Investment's analyst Kang Song-cheol pointed out that Korea's weight in the MSCI's Emerging Markets Index, which includes 24 countries, will decrease by 0.03 percent.