Image of Samsung’s high bandwidth memory chip HBM3E 12H DRAM (Courtesy of Samsung)
The second-quarter rally of Samsung Electronics Co. and SK Hynix Inc. shares drove a value increase in the domestic stock asset held by South Korea’s National Pension Service (NPS), while battery and tech stocks in the pension fund’s portfolio declined.
The world’s third-largest pension fund holds a 5% stake or more each in 283 listed companies in Korea, with the holding value reaching 155.9 trillion won ($112.6 billion) as of July 8, Seoul-based financial data firm FnGuide Inc. said on Wednesday.
The number of companies and holding value respectively increased by 2.5% and 6.3% from its previous quarterly disclosure on March 29.
The rise in Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, the world’s two largest memory chipmakers, made up 55.8% of the holding value increase of 9.3 trillion won for the second quarter.
Samsung Electronics share climbed 6.07% and added 2.3 trillion won to the holding value in the April-June period. SK Hynix surged 27.60%, bringing 2.9 trillion won to the value during the same quarter.
NPS didn’t change its ownership of the two companies in the second quarter, 7.68% in Samsung Electronics and 7.90% in SK Hynix.
Automaker Hyundai Motor Co. ranked third in holding value increase, adding 831.5 billion won to NPS’ local stock portfolio for the second quarter. KB Financial Group and Hyundai Motor’s sister company Kia Corp. followed, with increases of 577.7 billion won and 403.8 billion won, respectively, in the same period.
NPS’ holdings in Hyundai Motor and Kia rose by 0.08 percentage point and 0.04 percentage point, respectively, in the second quarter. The pension scheme’s holding in KB Financial didn’t change.
LG Energy Solution’s EV battery (Courtesy of LG)
BATTERY, INTERNET SHARE DOWN
The holding value of battery and internet stocks declined in the second quarter.
The value of NPS’ holding in LG Energy Solution Ltd., the world’s third-largest battery maker, dropped 493.9 billion won in the April-June period.
The holding value of Samsung SDI Co., the global No. 6 electric vehicle battery producer, and battery cell materials manufacturer LG Chem Ltd. declined by 485.3 billion won and 407.8 billion won, respectively. The stock value of POSCO Holdings Inc., which owns cathode and anode materials maker POSCO Future M Co., decreased by 252.5 billion won.
The holding value in tech conglomerate Kakao Corp. and online portal giant Naver Corp. shares respectively declined 272.1 billion won and 225.9 billion won in the second quarter.
NPS maintained the holding percentages of LG Energy Solution, Samsung SDI, LG Chem, POSCO Holdings and Naver. The pension scheme raised holdings in Kakao by 0.02 point percentage in the second quarter.
NPS increased its holdings in 19 listed companies to 5% or above in the second quarter. Among the firms are vessel maintenance service provider HD Hyundai Marine Solution Co., skincare products maker APR Co. and cosmetics company Tonymoly Co.
The pension scheme cut its holdings below 5% in 12 firms, which include online shopping platform operator Hyundai Home Shopping Network Corp., bakery giant SPC Samlip Corp. and container shipping line HMM Co.
By Tae-Ung Bae
btu104@hankyung.com
Jihyun Kim edited this article.
