April 19, 2024

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[THE INVESTOR] Korea’s tertiary bourse KONEX is bucking the stock market boom, losing its market capitalization this year, Korea Exchange data showed on Oct. 26.

KONEX opened in July 2013 to trade shares in small and medium enterprises and give them growth-inducing capital. Its market cap as of Oct. 25 totaled 4.47 trillion won (US$3.96 billion), down 6 percent from last year’s end.

The slump is in sharp contrast to the main bourse KOSPI which gained 23.9 percent in market cap during the period to 1,621.52 trillion won. The secondary market KOSDAQ that trades tech stocks gained 18.1 percent for a market cap of 36.39 trillion won.

Market analysts say the slump is partially from the leaders in KONEX moving on to KOSDAQ, taking out the main market movers. Daily turnover in the January-September period averaged 11.7 billion won, less than half of the 24.5 billion won during the same months last year.

By Alex Lee and newswires (alexlee @heraldcorp.com)