Kwangdong Pharmaceutical(009290) was weak early in the session on news that operating profit fell sharply despite sales growth in the second quarter this year.
As of 9:36 a.m. on the 13th, Kwangdong Pharmaceutical was trading at 6,330 won on the Korea Exchange, down 340 won (5.10%) from the previous session.
It is seen that the deterioration in profitability in the second-quarter results announced the previous day weighed on investor sentiment. Kwangdong Pharmaceutical's second-quarter consolidation basis sales were 439.8 billion won, up 3.4% from a year earlier. That was 7.0% higher than the prior quarter.
By contrast, operating profit was 2.8 billion won, down 37.8% from the same period last year. Net profit was 3.2 billion won, up 32.1% year over year.
On a cumulative first-half basis, the company continued to improve results. First-half sales were 850.7 billion won, up 6.0% from a year earlier, and operating profit was 10.3 billion won, up 31.8%. Net profit also rose 24.9% to 8.1 billion won.