South Korea's top 10 conglomerates saw their stock market capitalization edge down this year, as market heavyweights such as Samsung Electronics Co. and POSCO remained lackluster amid a bearish run on the local stock market, industry data showed on Wednesday.

The combined market capitalization of affiliates under their wings stood at 726 trillion won (US$717 billion) as of Thursday, down 0.63 percent from the start of this year, according to the data.

The decline was largely attributed to a slump in Samsung Electronics, the country's top market cap, and other major companies.

During the cited period, the country's key stock index, the KOSPI, rose to 2,010.97 points from 1,967.19 points over the cited period.

According to the data, top conglomerate Samsung Group suffered a 2.27 percent decline in its market cap at 310 trillion won as of Thursday. Samsung Electronics, the world's largest manufacturer of smartphones, fell to 1,295,000 won on Tuesday from 1,309,000 won on Jan. 2

No. 2 conglomerate Hyundai Motor Group also saw its market cap decline 0.74 percent to reach 142 trillion won. Its flagship Hyundai Motor Co. rose to 225,500 won on Tuesday from 224,500 won.

Steel giant POSCO's market capitalization was also down 8.07 percent at 33.07 trillion won.

But energy and telecom giant SK Group enjoyed the largest gain of 13.8 percent to reach 92.62 trillion won, driven by a sharp rise in its chipmaking affiliate SK hynix Inc. SK hynix has risen some

40 percent so far this year to close at 51,900 won on Tuesday.

LG Group, whose mainstay affiliates include LG Electronics Inc., posted a 4.34 percent rise in its market capitalization at 74.9 trillion won.

LG Electronics, backed by rising hopes for the success of its new flagship smartphone, the LG G3, has climbed some 12 percent so far this year to close at 77,700 won on Tuesday, the data showed. (Yonhap)