The market share of Korea's top 20 listed firms on the main bourse edged up this year from December last year, with tech giant Samsung Electronics Co. retaining the top-cap spot, the bourse operator said Monday.
The market cap of the top 20 companies reached 581.5 trillion won ($525.5 billion), or 51.57 percent of the total market cap on the benchmark KOSPI as of Oct. 17, according to the Korea Exchange (KRX).
The KRX said the percentage rose 1.60 percentage points from the end of 2011 after it declined in 2010, the bourse operator added.
Samsung Electronics Co. took the top place with a market cap of 214.6 trillion won, or 19.04 percent of the total.
Samsung Life Insurance Co. jumped to rank 7th from 10th over the cited period, with memory chip maker SK hynix Inc. going up by two notches to 11th.
NHN Corp., a leading Internet portal provider, newly vaulted into the top 20 list this year to rank 14th, the KRX said.
On the secondary tech-laden KOSDAQ, the top 20 took up 21.39 percent of the total market cap, slightly down from the end of last year, with entertainment and game-related shares making an upturn in the top 20 list, the bourse operator said. (Yonhap)