By Elise Mak
Investing.com – Kakao Games Corp, the gaming subsidiary of South Korea's popular messaging application operator Kakao Corp , made a strong debut on Thursday in South Korea. Its share price hit the daily change limit of 30%.
Trading on the tech-heavy Kosdaq market, the company’s shares opened at KRW48,000 ($40.41) per share on Thursday morning, while its IPO price was KRW24,000 apiece. The company’s market cap surged to KRW3.5 trillion ($2.95 billion). The anticipation that video gaming will get a boost from more people staying home due to the pandemic supported Kakao Games’ share price. The company provides games across various platforms, such as PC, mobile and VR, and it distributes its games to North America, Europe and other parts of Asia.
Kakao Games’ strong debut also benefited the parent company, which owns a 46.08% stake in the video game publisher. Kakao Corp (KS:035720)’s shares traded 0.39% higher at KRW385,500 ($324.54) by 10:45 PM ET (3:45 AM GMT) on the main Kospi market. China’s gaming giant Tencent Holdings Ltd (HK:0700) also saw its shares up 2.28% at HK$515.5 in Hong Kong.