The weight of South Korea's major exporters in the local stock market diminished over the past two years as their earnings were hit by the slow recovery of the global economy, data showed Wednesday.
  

The combined market capitalization of nine leading firms in tech, auto, chemical and shipbuilding -- the nation's traditional economic drivers -- tallied at 325.78 trillion won ($296.37 billion) as of Jan. 23, down 17.5 percent compared to two years ago, according to data compiled by Dongbu Securities.
  

Among them are top market cap Samsung Electronics Co., No. 1 automaker Hyundai Motors Co., leading battery maker LG Chem Co., and Hyundai Heavy Industries Co., the world's largest shipbuilder, which posted poor earnings last year.
  

The ratio of their combined value in the Seoul bourse measured at 34.8 percent on Jan. 4, 2013, but it fell to as low as 25.5 percent in October and tallied at 27.9 percent on Jan. 23.
  

The combined operating profit of the nine firms sank 35.9 percent on-year to 56.41 trillion won in 2014, while the corresponding figure for other shares of listed firms gained 29.5 percent to 77.14 trillion won, data noted.
  

The heavy dependence on a handful of exporters has posed greater risk to the South Korean economy as emerging Chinese manufacturers in steel, shipbuilding and chemical industries have been raising their global market share over the past years.
  

"The South Korean economy relies too much on exporters in IT, auto and refinery sectors," Hwang Se-woon, a senior researcher at the Korea Capital Market Institute, said. "As a few large caps in these sectors are leading the local stock market, their sluggish earnings have negatively affected the benchmark KOSPI." (Yonhap)