After a 5 to 1 stock-split, Kakao stock rose more than 7%. Kim Bum-soo, Chairman of Kakao's board of directors, sold 500 billion won worth of shares through after-hours block deal.
Kakao explained that Chairman Kim's action is a follow-up for the pledge to donate half of his assets. Kakao resumed trading on the same day by splitting the face value per share from 500 won to 100 won.
At the opening, Kakao stock soared more than 18%, prompting the Korea Exchange to activated a volatility interruption (VI).
Kakao's market capitalization stood at 53.479 trillion won, up more than 4 trillion won from just before the split (49.5291 trillion won). Kakao surpassed Samsung BioLogics (53.329 trillion won) and ranked fifth in the KOSPI market capitalization.
On the KOSPI market on the 15th, individual investors bought 434.7 billion won worth of Kakao shares. On the other hand, institutional investors (277.4 billion won) and foreigners (144.1 billion won) sold their stocks.
Reporter Lee Ji-sun stockmk2020@gmail.com
