Over-the-counter trade in South Korea is growing fast thanks to investor’s strong appetite for bio stocks, but the main Kospi and secondary Kosdaq remain sluggish amid US-China trade spat.

According to the Korea Financial Investment Association (KFIA) on Sunday, transaction volume in Korea`s over-the-counter financial market (K-OTC) on July 4 recorded 7.3 billion won (6.6 million), the second-largest since the market became operational in 2014. The daily turnover averaged at 6.1 billion won between July 3 and 5, more than doubling this year’s daily average trade volume of 2.5 billion won.

Kospi’s transaction amount, on the contrary, dipped to 4.8 trillion won on July 4, the lowest for this year. The trade volume logged 690 million shares, the smallest since March 26. Its turnover gained slightly to around 5 trillion on the next trading day but the trading value of its smaller peer Kosdaq recorded 2.99 trillion won to fall under the 3 trillion won mark for the first time since Oct. 11, 2017.

The main driver behind K-OTC’s stellar performance is bio stocks. Vivozone Inc., a biopharmaceutical company that opened trading on June 28 had 4.88 billion won worth of its shares traded on average between July 3 and 5. The turnover reached 6.17 billion won on July 3 alone, the largest daily amount for a stock since the market’s launch in 2014.

Aribio Co., another biopharmaceutical firm that joined the over-the-counter trading in April is also performing well. Other bio players Mediforum and Newgenpharm are preparing to enter the K-OTC in August, according to KFIA.

By Park Yun-gu and Cho Jeehyun

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