The stock of Gyeongnam Steel, tied to Daegu Mayor Hong Joon-pyo, is showing strong gains of over 15%. This is due to news that Mayor Hong recently met with Paul Manafort, a former campaign manager for Donald Trump's presidential campaign, during an undisclosed visit to South Korea.

Mayor Hong Jun-pyo of Daegu./Courtesy of News1

On the morning of the 10th at 9:14 a.m., Gyeongnam Steel was traded at 6,400 won, up 880 won (15.94%) from the previous trading day. Gyeongnam Steel garnered attention as a theme stock because the chairman of Gyeongnam Steel, Choi Chung-kyung, was the president of the Gyeongnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry during Mayor Hong's tenure as the governor of Gyeongnam. Gyeongnam Steel has already stated that there is no business relationship with Mayor Hong.

According to political circles the previous day, Mayor Hong met with former Deputy Minister Manafort at an undisclosed location in Seoul on the 7th. Paul Manafort is known to have served as the campaign chairman for Trump's 2016 presidential campaign and is recognized as a close associate of Trump.

During this meeting, Mayor Hong reportedly discussed U.S.-South Korea relations and security issues in the context of a second Trump administration, emphasizing nuclear armament of the Korean Peninsula and the nuclear balance between North and South Korea.