[THE INVESTOR] SK Group, Korea’s second-largest conglomerate in market capitalization on the main bourse, managed to further distance itself from  Hyundai Motor Group, which it began to outrank since April, data showed on July 24.

As of July 21’s closing, firms listed on the top-tier market under SK Group had 120 trillion won (US$107.5 billion) in market cap, accounting for 6.62 percent of the market, showed data from the sole market operator Korea Exchange.

Hyundai Motor Group, which had tallied No. 2 as of the end of 2016, had 102.8 trillion won in market cap as of July 21, taking up 5.67 percent.

The gap between SK Group and Hyundai Group -- 17.2 trillion won -- has nearly doubled from 9.8 trillion won in a July 6 estimate.

SK and Hyundai have been in a neck-and-neck race for the No. 2 position in market cap since rallies in the benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index started to take shape in April, surging over 2,450 points. Kospi topped the 2,200 mark for the first time in six years on April 26.

The drive was mainly attributed to the group’s chipmaker arm SK hynix’s upbeat performance in the stock market. Shares of SK hynix rose 59.28 percent this year, or 19.3 trillion won of market cap. Meanwhile, Hyundai Motor Group affiliates’ downbeat performances, Hyundai Motor’s June decision to carry out recalls, as well as ongoing external trade woes from the United States and China, have cast a shadow on the group’s earnings forecast.

The nation’s top conglomerate Samsung Group saw its market cap rise to 516.6 trillion won, up 30.8 percent or 121.8 trillion won from the end of 2016, ranking first.

LG Group and Lotte Group were the fourth and the fifth largest, with 91.8 trillion won and 30.3 trillion won in market cap, respectively.

The market cap of the nation’s top 10 family-owned business groups took up 51.66 percent of the Kospi market value. This excluded steelmaker Posco, telecommunications firm KT and National Agricultural Cooperative Federation, as the data only included conglomerates whose chiefs and family members hold more than 30 percent of each group’s stocks, excluding preferred stocks.

The Kospi market has been enjoying its heyday, with local equity experts viewing that listed firms have more room for revaluation, on the back of buoyancy in global technology firms and waning uncertainties at home and abroad.

Eight out of the 10 business groups saw gains in market cap, with two of them -- Hyundai Motor Group and Doosan Group -- taking losses in market cap worth 600 billion won and 652 billion won, respectively, from 2016.

Riding the unprecedented rallies, Korea’s top-tier stock market on July 21 saw a 20.1 percent surge in market cap, or 303 trillion won, from the end of 2016.

The Kospi on July 24 dipped 0.11 percent as of 2 p.m., marking the end of a record run that continued for seven consecutive trading days until July 21. The Kospi market closed at an all-time high of 2,450.06 on July 21.

By Son Ji-hyoung/The Korea Herald (consnow@heraldcorp.com)