Hearty appetite for South Korean equities spilled beyond the secondary bourse to the third Konex (Korea New Exchange) exclusive for startups and small and mid-sized entities, bringing about the first kind of lively trade activity since its 2013 creation.

According to the Korea Exchange (KRX), Wednesday’s trading turnover on the Konex came to 15.7 billion won ($146.5 million), renewing its previous record of 12.9 billion won tallied on Mar. 8, 2016.

The capitalization of 154-member market has been ballooning in rapid pace in the new year, surging to 5.8 trillion won on Tuesday from 5.5 trillion won two trading days ago.

Daily trading volume in the first seven trading days of the new year averaged 9.5 billion won, nearly 10-fold of 1.1 billion won to 1.5 billion won in the first quarter last year.

“We have seen sudden jump in investment from the fourth quarter,” said an official of the Korea Exchange.

As in the secondary Kosdaq, attention was mostly in bio stocks. Leaders were Toolgen, Enzychem Lifesciences and NovMetaPharma.

By Shin Heon-chul and Minu Kim

[ⓒ Pulse by Maeil Business Newspaper & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]