With the KOSPI dropping 215.27 points (3.73%) to close at 5,552.74 on the 20th, the KOSPI and other indices are displayed on the electronic board of the dealing room at Hana Bank's headquarters in Jung-gu, Seoul. Oct. 20, 2026. photo1006@newsis.com

[Seoul = Newsis] Reporter Kim Kyung-taek = Sparked by the shock of the plunging stock market, public offering stock prices are also struggling to gain traction. Investment sentiment surrounding IPOs has frozen solid as newly listed stocks continuously fall below their offering prices, with Elice Group—touted as a major blockbuster IPO with a market capitalization exceeding 1 trillion won—plummeting more than 30% on its very first day of trading.

According to the Korea Exchange on the 21st, Elice, which was listed on the KOSDAQ market the previous day, closed at 61,500 won, down 29,000 won (32.04%) from its offering price. Opening at 75,700 won—about 16% lower than its offering price—Elice failed to recover its offering price even once during the session. Its intraday drop exceeded 37%, coming close to minus (-) 40%, the lower limit of the daily price fluctuation band on its first day of listing.

Even considering that the domestic stock market underwent a major correction the previous day, Elice's sluggish debut is evaluated as somewhat unusual.

This is because Elice had drawn considerable interest from investors during the IPO process. In fact, despite being a large-scale IPO with a market capitalization exceeding 1 trillion won, Elice recorded a relatively high competition rate of 389 to 1 in institutional demand forecasting, and successfully drove box-office excitement by gathering an astonishing 10.2599 trillion won in subscription deposits from general investors.

The weakness in share prices is not limited to Elice. Amid recent stock market volatility, investment returns are deteriorating as newly listed stocks successively fall below their offering prices.

As of the previous day's closing price, out of 9 IPO stocks (excluding SPACs) listed since last month, the share prices of 7 are trading below their offering prices. The average return relative to the offering price for these 9 stocks was tallied at -16.77%.

By stock, Ducksan Nepcore, listed on the 30th of last month, recorded the largest drop, falling 40.21% compared to its offering price. Elice (-32.04%), Global Technology (-30.30%), Wise Planet Company (-27.58%), and Brills (-16.67%) also significantly undercut their offering prices. Jincostec, which went public via a SPAC merger, also plunged 10,830 won (45.41%) from its base price of 23,850 won to 13,020 won the previous day.

As investment sentiment in the IPO market contracts, the possibility of stock price differentiation by individual companies is expected to grow for the time being. Analysts suggest that thorough "wheat-from-the-chaff" screening—carefully weighing corporate earnings outlooks, growth potential, and offering price levels—will become all the more crucial going forward.

Kang Young-hoon, a researcher at Samsung Securities, explained, "This year, there has been a tendency for capital to concentrate in anticipation of early listing premium effects, but when new stocks flood the market all at once, the scarcity and visibility of individual stocks can diminish. Consequently, from this month onward, as IPOs pour in, the filtering process based on industry competitiveness and appropriate valuation will further intensify."

[Copyright (c) Global Economic Times. All Rights Reserved.]