In the past year, the South Korean stock market’s market capitalization rose by nearly $379 billion (500 trillion won). The ‘trillion-won club’ increased membership from 228 to 259 stocks. Samsung Electronics experienced the most significant growth among domestic stocks, with a market capitalization increase of over $106 billion (140 trillion won). A close market capitalization competition is expected between LG Group and SK Group for the second position among the four major conglomerates.
The Korea CXO Institute’s report, released on Jan. 11, analyzed the changes in market capitalization of the Korean stock market from early January 2023 to early January 2024. The study included 2607 stocks, excluding preferred stocks, comparing market capitalization and ranking changes from last year to this year as of Jan. 2.
The total market capitalization of the surveyed domestic stock market increased from $1.5 trillion (2011 trillion won) last year to $1.9 trillion (2503 trillion won) this year, marking a 24.3% increase or $371 billion (489 trillion won).
Last year, 228 stocks were part of the trillion-won club. The number fluctuated throughout the year, reaching 258 at the end of March, declining to 256 at the end of June, further dropping to 251 at the end of September, and finally settling at 259 at the start of this year. This represents an increase of 31 new members to the trillion-won market capitalization club compared to the start of last year.
Market capitalization rankings among the top 20 stocks were volatile. Only Samsung Electronics and NAVER maintained their positions at first and eighth, respectively. A significant development was SK Hynix moving up to second place from fourth after surpassing the $76 billion (100 trillion won) market capitalization mark.
Hyundai Motor also improved its position, rising from seventh to fifth. POSCO Holdings and Celltrion entered the top 10 rankings. Additionally, EcoPro BM made a substantial leap, climbing from 38th to 12th. Its holding company, EcoPro, rose from 103rd to 19th.
Conversely, LG Energy Solutions and Samsung BioLogics, ranked second and third by market capitalization, dropped one spot to third and fourth, respectively, at the beginning of the year. LG Chem fell from fifth to ninth, Kakao moved out of the top 10 to 14th, and Samsung SDI slipped from sixth to 11th.
Among major Korean groups, only Samsung Group, LG Group, SK Group, and Hyundai Motor Group had market capitalizations exceeding $75.8 billion (100 trillion won) at the start of the year. Among them, Samsung Group’s market capitalization increased from $42.6 billion (561.227 trillion won) at the beginning of last year to $54.5 billion (718.145 trillion won) at the beginning of January, an increase of over $19 billion (156.9218 trillion won) in one year. This rise in market capitalization was the largest among the four groups.
“When comparing the domestic market capitalization at the beginning of January between last year and this year, there were nearly 10 percent more increases than decreases,” said Oh Il-sun, head of the Korea CXO Institute. “The market capitalization of IT-related stocks, particularly Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, increased noticeably, and this upward trend will likely continue into the first half of the year.”
