Biotech momentum in the second-tier Kosdaq market has led 33 Kosdaq stocks to enter the list of top 200 listed firms in market cap both on the Kosdaq and top-tier Kospi, as of Friday, up from 23 at the end of 2016, data showed Monday.

The 10 new Kosdaq-listed firms include biosimilar drug marketer Celltrion Healthcare and antirheumatic drugmaker TissueGene, which made their market debuts in July and earlier this month, respectively, according to data from the Korea Exchange. The firms’ market cap came to 11 trillion won ($10 billion) and 3.6 trillion won, respectively, as of Friday.

Clinical-stage cancer drug developer SillaJen, which went public in December last year, was also new to the list, after marking stellar performance for about a year. SillaJen’s market cap jumped 6.6 times to 6.5 trillion won Friday, from its initial market cap on Dec. 6, 2016.

Other local biotech firms, such as Celltrion Pharm, HLB and Genexine, also joined the list, with market cap of 2.1 trillion won, 1.5 trillion won and 1.2 trillion won, respectively, on Friday.

The news came as rallies of Kosdaq powerhouses, mostly biopharma shares, pushed the Kosdaq to the highest in 28 months. The Kosdaq jumped 7.6 percent the previous week to close at 775.85 Friday. On Thursday, the Kosdaq closed at 780.22, the highest since July 2015.

But they seem to be overrated, analysts here said.

Kim Ye-eun, an analyst at IBK Securities, said Monday that rallies of Kosdaq-listed health care shares might result in a “deja vu to the dot-com bubble,” referring to a series of demise of IT companies in 2000, which had hit hard the tech-heavy Kosdaq market.

She added the current biotech-led Kosdaq rally stemmed from investor appetite for risky assets.

Lee Sang-min, a quant analyst at Baro Investment & Securities, also said the “overheatedness in the Kosdaq is likely to continue,” citing the price earnings ratio of the benchmark Kosdaq 150 index at 25.57 as of Friday. A P/E ratio lower than 10 is widely perceived as undervalued stocks.

By Son Ji-hyoung 
(consnow@heraldcorp.com)