Although the stocks of Korean biopharmaceutical companies plummeted following news of Samsung BioLogics’ accounting irregularities, the addition of some bio stocks to Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI)’s index may change their downward trajectory, experts say.

The MSCI Monday added the stocks of Celltrion Pharmaceutical, Viromed, and HLB and two non-pharma stocks to its MSCI Global Standard Indexes. At the same time, it delisted Hanwha Techwin, HLB Hyundai Wia Corp., and SK Networks from the index.

“Celltrion Pharmaceutical has been added to MSCI recently following the inclusion of Celltrion Healthcare last November during rebalancing, creating a three-pronged Celltrion cluster. And the additional inclusion of Viromed and HLB is likely to have a positive influence on investment sentiment in the biopharmaceutical sector,” said Ha In-hwan, an analyst at SK Securities.

“This is a positive event from the aspect of supply and demand due to the influx of passive funds,” he added.

Korean stocks account for 15 percent of the entire MSCI Emerging Market Index - ranking second after China. Around $1.6 trillion is invested into the firms on the MSCI EM index.

“Even though the index will most likely impact the firms added, the additions are also expected to influence the biopharmaceutical industry indirectly because of stakeholder relationships and industry trends,” an industry expert noted.

The changes will go into effect next month. The impact on stocks, however, was immediate. Shares of Celltrion Pharmaceutical on Tuesday rose 1.85 percent from the previous day to close at 87,900 won ($81.3). Celltrion Pharm stocks peaked at the end of last month to reach 90,000 won but had been falling slowly since.

Viromed stocks also rose 4.9 percent on Tuesday to close at 196,900 won. Stock prices of the firm peaked at 267,000 won in early April and declined steadily since. Stock prices of HLB rose 0.52 percent to close at 97,500 won. Prices of HLB have been falling after hitting 129,800 won early this month.

yjc@docdocdoc.co.kr

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