SEOUL, Dec. 21 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's 10 major business groups reported a 57.3 percent increase in market capitalization from a year ago, Seoul's bourse operator said Monday.

    According to the Korea Exchange (KRX), the total market value of 10 conglomerates stood at 472.6 trillion won (401.2 billion U.S. dollars) as of Dec. 17, up from 300.5 trillion won (255.1 billion U.S. dollars) tallied at the end of last year.

    Among the ten tycoons, Samsung Group saw the steepest rise in stock value, which gained 73.2 trillion won (62.1 billion U.S. dollars) from last year's 117.5 trillion won (99.7 billion U.S. dollars).

    Hyundai Motor Group and LG Group also marked a market cap jump of 175.5 percent and 70.3 percent to 63.8 trillion won (54.2 billion U.S. dollars) and 71.4 trillion won (60.6 billion U.S. dollars),  respectively.

    Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. and Kumho Asiana Group, however, posted a loss in market value, seeing a fall of 2.98 trillion won (2.5 billion U.S. dollars) and 690 billion won (585.7 million U.S.dollars), respectively.

    In the meantime, the total share of 10 conglomerates' market value with respect to all traded stocks increased only 1.40 percent from last year's 48.23 percent, standing at 49.63 percent.

    The small increase in the figure was attributed to a sharper gain of market cap in listed companies, excluding the top 10, on the back of stock market rebound, local analysts said.     

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