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Korean cathode maker Ecopro was the world’s best performing stock in 2023.
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An investment frenzy in electric vehicles sent its shares up 572%.
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Ecopro even outperformed US semiconductor giant Nvidia, up 229% year to date.
The best performing stock in the world in 2023 is not one of the vaunted ones « Magnificent Seven » — it is a little-known South Korean cathode manufacturer.
Actions in Ecopro have soared 572% since the start of the year, according to Refinitiv data. Seoul, the techno-heavy Kosdaq the index is up 27% over the same period.
The South Koreans crowded into what is called « thematic actions » like electric vehicle battery makers over the past 12 months, in a frenzy that has led to huge spikes in volatility and forced financial watchdogs to crack down on what they view as excessive speculation.
Ecopro’s share price jumped more than 1,000% between January and the end of July. Although he has since given up some of those gains, he remains the top performer among Bloomberg’s 2,647 members. Global Index year to date.
The component manufacturer’s stratospheric returns in 2024 even allow it to outperform the American semiconductor giant. Nvidiathe poster child for this year’s AI-powered rally.
Nvidia, which dominates the market for graphics processing units (GPUs) that power large language models like GPT-4, has seen its stock price skyrocket 229% since the start of the year, boosting its capitalization total stock market to more than 1,200 billion dollars. Ecopro was valued at 19.4 billion South Korean won ($15 billion) at the closing bell on Thursday.
The cathode maker’s soaring share price also prompted its founder Lee Dong-chae, currently at a two-year prison sentence for insider trading – a billionaire this year. His family’s total net worth increased from $300 million to $3.6 billion in 2024, according to data from the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Read the original article on Business Insider
