Through the third quarter of this year, cumulative operating profit of KOSDAQ-listed companies increased by nearly 800 billion won from a year earlier. Expectations for interest rate cuts and a recovery in investor sentiment are seen as the main reasons for the stabilized earnings trend.
According to the KOSDAQ market December settlement of account corporations 2025 third-quarter settlement of account results released by the Korea Exchange (KRX) on the 18th, cumulative operating profit on a consolidation basis for the third quarter of this year for 1,217 KOSDAQ-listed companies was 8.8358 trillion won, up 9.74% (784.6 billion won) from the same period a year earlier. During the same period, revenue rose 6.71% (13.4188 trillion won) to 213.284 trillion won, and net profit increased 16.59% (760.8 billion won) to 5.3457 trillion won.
Looking only at third-quarter (July–September) results, operating profit was 3.2458 trillion won, down 4.67% from the previous quarter. Revenue also fell 1.38% to 72.4176 trillion won. However, net profit surged 208.51% to 2.869 trillion won.
Profitability indicators improved. On a cumulative basis through the third quarter, the operating margin to revenue was 4.14%, up 0.11 percentage point from a year earlier, and the net margin was 2.51%, up 0.21 percentage point. However, the liability ratio at the end of the third quarter was 112.78%, 7.45 percentage points higher than at the end of last year.
By industry, distribution, pharmaceuticals, and medical and precision instruments led the results. The distribution sector logged cumulative operating profit of 1.7014 trillion won, up 16.17% from a year earlier; pharmaceuticals rose 83.32% to 399.6 billion won; and medical and precision instruments increased 58.60% to 305.2 billion won.
Companies in the black on a cumulative basis through the third quarter numbered 678, or 55.71% of the total. Of these, 545 remained in the black, while 133 turned from a loss to a profit.
Among corporations with the largest operating profit, Daou Data posted the most at 1.2306 trillion won. It was followed by ▲ SUNGWOO HITECH (187 billion won) ▲ SILICON2 (163 billion won) ▲ PharmaResearch (162.5 billion won) ▲ HUGEL (143 billion won) ▲ Easy Holdings (136.4 billion won) ▲ DONGJIN SEMICHEM (130.8 billion won) ▲ SME (128.4 billion won) ▲ ITCEN Global (119.9 billion won) ▲ CLASSYS (119.4 billion won) ▲ Seohee Construction Co. (118.3 billion won) ▲ JYP Ent. (113.3 billion won) in that order.
Meanwhile, cumulative operating profit through the third quarter for companies included in the KOSDAQ150 Index, composed of leading KOSDAQ corporations, was 4.3213 trillion won, up 13.74% from a year earlier.