The National Pension Service increased its equity in KOSDAQ small and mid-sized materials, parts, and equipment corporations in the first quarter this year. While maintaining its stance centered on large-cap KOSPI stocks, the number of disclosures on expanding equity in KOSDAQ-listed companies edged up from the previous quarter, showing a shift.
An analysis on the 5th of the National Pension Service Investment Management's "first-quarter major stock holdings" showed 106 disclosures related to KOSPI and 36 to KOSDAQ. The share of KOSDAQ names among all disclosures was 25.35%, up 2.83 percentage points from the previous quarter's 22.52%. The National Pension Service is required to disclose when it holds 5% or more of a listed company's equity or when there is a change of 1 percentage point or more.
The National Pension Service is widening its steps into the KOSDAQ market and accelerating equity increases. As of fourth-quarter disclosures last year, names in which the National Pension Service sharply raised its stake, such as TES (8.43%) and PSK (8.14%), remained in the 8% range, but in the first quarter this year, there were cases where the stake was lifted into the 10% range.
In fact, the National Pension Service recently expanded its equity in Daejoo Electronic Materials to 10.04%, showing a concentrated buying trend. Considering that the stake was below 5% until last year, this is an aggressive increase in weighting.
Daejoo Electronic Materials has recently been grouped as a SpaceX beneficiary stock, drawing market attention. It is seen as reflecting expectations that it will supply key related materials in line with the outlook for mass production of SpaceX's solar cells.
Corporations in which the National Pension Service expanded its stake to 9% or more included Wonik Materials and TES. The National Pension Service raised its equity in Wonik Materials by 1.13 percentage points, from 8.64% last year to 9.77% in the first quarter this year. In TES, the National Pension Service's stake increased from 8.43% last year to 9.44%. Wonik Materials is a mid-sized company in the Wonik Group that produces high-purity specialty gases needed for semiconductors and displays. TES is a manufacturer of core front-end semiconductor equipment.
In addition, new names on the major stock holdings list included the medical artificial intelligence company 3billion, ABL Bio (biotech), YG Entertainment (entertainment), Taihan Fiberoptics, which has recently drawn attention as an optical communications theme stock, and Fintech corporation KONA I.
Meanwhile, in the Korea Exchange main board (KOSPI), the National Pension Service appeared to have focused on undervalued stocks with low price-to-book ratios (PBR), such as Handsome and Paradise. By increase in holding weight, Paradise ranked first and Handsome second. Paradise's equity rose sharply from 7.13% last year to 11.37% in the first quarter this year, while Handsome's equity also expanded by 3.26 percentage points from 6.29% last year to 9.55%.