Market capitalization of the nation’s top 100 companies has fluctuated widely amid the novel coronavirus outbreak, while that of bio-related companies surged, according to a local corporate tracker Tuesday.

Korea CXO Institute surveyed the market cap of more than 2,300 listed companies in the first quarter, noting that the combined market value of the top 100 companies fell 17 percent from 1,218 trillion won ($994 billion) on Jan. 2 to 1,011 trillion won on March 31.

Despite the stock market crash, bio-related companies have fared well.

Of the top 100 companies, the market cap of biotech company Seegene surged the most. In early January, it had a market capitalization of 811 billion won. As the coronavirus got unleashed, the market cap of the company rose to 2.9 trillion won at the end of March, with the ranking rising by 160 notches to 63rd place.

The market cap of Celltrion also rose by more than 6 trillion won to 29.39 trillion won at the end of March from 23.18 trillion won in early January. Celltrion Healthcare and Celltrion Pharm saw their market cap increase by more than 1 trillion won.

Samsung Electronics remained unchanged as the top market cap company. But, its value fell by 44 trillion won to 285 trillion won in the three months. 

By Shin Ji-hye (shinjh@heraldcorp.com)