South Korea’s biosimilar firm Celltrion will trade on the country’s major bourse Kospi from Friday, making a graceful exit from the secondary Kosdaq where it rose to the biggest cap stock in less than a decade.

The Korea Stock Exchange announced on Wednesday Celltrion will be delisted on the Kosdaq to be transferred to the main Kospi as it meets the requirements for revised listing on Friday.

Investors bid farewells in much fanfare, and the bio bellwether finished its last day on the junior market 6.02 percent higher at 271,400 won with market cap at 33.3 trillion won ($31 billion). The Kosdaq index closed 3.85 percent higher as other stocks would benefit from the leave of Celltrion that has 10.3 percent influence over the benchmark index and 18 percent over total trade volume.

Celltrion is very likely to meet the eligibility criteria to be included in the Kospi 200 stock portfolio next month, which means exchange-traded funds that track the index can shovel money into Celltrion whose market cap is close to 31 trillion won. In contrast, ETFs that track the Kosdaq 150 index will have to sell their holdings.

To be included in the Kospi 200 index, a stock is required to maintain its position in the top 50 rankings in terms of average market cap for 15 days after the transfer. In comparison, Celltrion has remained third in market cap among the Kospi stocks in the past 20 days.

After the transfer, Celltrion could be positioned as the third largest stock on the main bourse ahead of the country’s largest carmaker Hyundai Motor and steelmaker Posco, analysts said.

By Chung Seul-gi and Minu Kim

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