{"id":56601,"date":"2026-06-18T04:17:21","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T04:17:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/56601\/"},"modified":"2026-06-18T04:17:21","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T04:17:21","slug":"semiconductor-suppliers-drive-kosdaq-toward-blue-chip-investment-ecosystem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/56601\/","title":{"rendered":"Semiconductor Suppliers Drive KOSDAQ Toward Blue-Chip Investment Ecosystem"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"[CAPTIONS] The[CAPTIONS]
\nThe won-dollar exchange rate and the Kospi and Kosdaq indexes are displayed on a status board in the dealing room at Hana Bank’s headquarters in Jung-gu, Seoul. The Kospi closed at 8,864.24, up 137.64 points (1.58%) from the previous session, while the Kosdaq ended at 1,031.96, up 13.28 points (1.30%). Yonhap News<\/p>\n

The core of the KOSDAQ tiered-segment reform being pursued by the Korea Exchange (KRX) lies not in simply dividing the market but in separately cultivating a group of blue-chip companies that can represent the KOSDAQ. With market-leading stocks recently being reshaped around artificial intelligence (AI) and semiconductors, some forecast that grouping blue-chip companies into a separate league could expand inflows of long-term funds from institutional investors. The exchange’s review of a plan to compress the number of companies in the top-tier premium segment to around 70\u2014down from the roughly 100 initially discussed\u2014reflects the same logic.<\/p>\n

Initially, financial authorities and officials inside the exchange also considered setting the premium league size at more than 100 companies. However, the market pointed out that having too many companies in the top tier could halve the effect of the system. The intent is to select blue-chip companies and present investors with clear criteria, but if the number of eligible firms increases, the distinction from the existing KOSDAQ 150 could in effect weaken.<\/p>\n

Within the exchange, there are also expectations that, if the premium league takes hold, it could serve as a conduit drawing long-term funds into the KOSDAQ, beyond a simple market division. Just as semiconductor-centered passive fund inflows recently supported index gains in the KOSPI market, the KOSDAQ too can build an investment ecosystem centered on representative blue-chip stocks, according to the explanation.<\/p>\n

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The shift in leading sectors in the KOSDAQ market also lies behind the growing momentum for this plan. According to FnGuide on Wednesday, the market capitalization share of the healthcare sector within the KOSDAQ market fell from 31.8% in January this year to 25.31% as of the 15th of this month. Over the same period, the semiconductor sector’s share expanded from 15.77% to 24.71%. The KOSDAQ, once perceived as a bio-centered market, is being reshaped into an AI- and semiconductor-centered market, and observers say conditions are also being met to create a representative league centered on blue-chip technology stocks.<\/p>\n

At the start of the year, the healthcare sector’s market capitalization stood at 200.492 trillion won, more than double that of semiconductors (99.4586 trillion won). However, in just six months, healthcare and semiconductor market capitalizations narrowed sharply to 146.8524 trillion won and 143.332 trillion won, respectively. According to FnGuide’s classification, the healthcare sector includes 315 stocks such as Celltrion Pharm, Inventera, and Dongkook Pharmaceutical. The semiconductor sector has 152 stocks including Leeno Industrial, Dongjin Semichem, and HLB Wonik Holdings.<\/p>\n

Behind the change in the KOSDAQ market’s leading sectors lie expanded AI investment and expectations for a semiconductor super-cycle. As expectations for an improvement in the semiconductor industry grow in the KOSPI market, centered on Samsung Electronics and SK hynix, large amounts of funds are also flowing into semiconductor materials, parts, and equipment stocks in the KOSDAQ. By contrast, the bio sector has been affected by profit-taking and weakened investor sentiment. The macroeconomic environment of entering a rate-hike period is also a negative factor.<\/p>\n

This change was also confirmed in the Korea Exchange’s sector indices. The KOSDAQ electrical and electronics index rose 48.07% from January this year through that day, showing strength. By contrast, the pharmaceutical index and the medical and precision equipment index fell 12.62% and 7.91%, respectively. These figures are far below the KOSDAQ index’s overall gain of 11.51%. This is the exact opposite of last year’s trend. Last year, the pharmaceutical index rose 40.13% and the medical and precision equipment index rose 33.75%, outpacing the electrical and electronics index’s gain of 24.54%.<\/p>\n

In the market, analysts note that, following the KOSPI, a semiconductor-centered market is becoming clear in the KOSDAQ as well. Lee Sang-yeon, a researcher at Shinyoung Securities, said, “As bio companies have recently been pushed out of the KOSDAQ market capitalization rankings, semiconductor materials, parts, and equipment stocks need to gain strength for the KOSDAQ to grow further,” adding, “The trend reversal between the semiconductor and healthcare sectors within the KOSDAQ is expected to continue for the time being.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"[CAPTIONS] The won-dollar exchange rate and the Kospi and Kosdaq indexes are displayed on a status board in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":56602,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[457],"tags":[16921,31938,31940,31939,337,31937,17616,31936,864,279],"class_list":["post-56601","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-korea-exchange","tag-ai-rally","tag-blue-chip-investment","tag-fnguide","tag-healthcare-sector","tag-korea-exchange","tag-korea-exchange-reform","tag-kosdaq-150","tag-kosdaq-premium-league","tag-krx","tag-semiconductor-stocks"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56601","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56601"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56601\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56602"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}