Kosdaq passes 1,000 listed firms

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Kosdaq passes 1,000 listed firms

The number of companies listed on the junior stock market in Korea, the Kosdaq, surpassed the 1,000-mark yesterday. The Kosdaq is the fourth tech-heavy stock market in the world to reach the milestone.
Korea Exchange, which also operates the benchmark Kospi index, said in a press release that four companies, including MN Tech Co. and Neo Technical System Co., were newly listed on the second-tier market yesterday, bringing the number of firms to 1,001.
In terms of the number of listed firms, Kosdaq is the world’s fourth-largest junior stock market, the operator said, after the U.S. Nasdaq, which listed 3,095 firms as of yesterday, Canada’s TSX-V with 2,129 companies and Britain’s AIM with 1,685. Japan’s Jasdaq, ahead of the Kosdaq in May last year, now trails its Korean counterpart with 978 companies.
By size of trading value, the Kosdaq has been the second-largest junior market next to the Nasdaq for seven straight years, the Exchange said.
“The 1,000-mark not only shows the numerical growth of the market,” said Pcha Gun-ho, director of the Exchange’s market operation team, “but it also presents a chance for us to look back at what the market has been through, as well as provides momentum to take the market to the next level.”
Kosdaq, standing for the Korean Securities Dealers Association’s Automated Quotations, opened in April 1987 as the over-the-counter market for small and midsized companies. But, on July 1, 1996, it became a full-fledged stock exchange, after introducing competitive bidding. In August 2000, the number of listed companies on the Kosdaq reached 500 and grew to 892 on Jan. 27, 2005 when the Kosdaq was integrated with Kospi into the Korea Exchange.
The total market capitalization of Kosdaq-listed corporations has jumped 12 times from 8.6 trillion won in July 1996 to 100 trillion won last month. The daily trade volume rose from 140,000 shares worth 2.1 billion won ($2.3 million) to 650 million shares worth 2.6 trillion won over the same time span. A total of 35 companies registered market capitalizations of more than 1 trillion won while being listed on the Kosdaq market.
KTF, the nation’s second-largest mobile operator, set the record for the biggest market capitalization on the market, posting a 37.4 trillion-won market cap on Dec. 28, 1999. It was followed by NHN, operator of the nation’s most visited portal site Naver, which recorded a 10.3 trillion-won market cap on Sept. 20.
In a successful beginning to becoming a global player, the stock market listed a foreign company this year. Chinese audio components manufacturer 3Nod Digital Group Co. listed its shares on the Kosdaq market in August, becoming the first foreign company to list shares on Korea’s stock markets.
Companies have also been diversified on the Kosdaq. The ratio of information technology companies, which once accounted for a solid majority of the market, has been reduced to 45 percent as of yesterday.


By Moon Gwang-lip Staff Writer [joe@joongang.co.kr]
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