MXene: Korean investors’ next target after superconductor craze fizzles

Speculative investors in South Korea have started to amass shares related to Mxene, touted as a next-generation material, after dumping a large number of stocks connected to room-temperature superconductors last week.    

Some Korean stocks related to MXene production have soared since last Friday and hit their daily limits for the second consecutive trading day on Aug. 21.

MXenes are a class of two-dimensional (2D) compounds that consist of atomically thin layers of transition metal carbides, nitrides or carbonitrides. As the material is highly conductive, combined with other metallic compounds it can be used for battery technology and energy storage, conductive coatings and electrochemical biosensors.    

Investors have flocked to the MXene-related stocks as a team at Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) published its paper in the global scientific journal Nanoscale last Thursday, claiming that they have developed a program that analyzes MXene's surface, which may help in mass production of the material.

The research team of KIST’s Korea-India Partnership Center announced they succeeded in MXene surface molecular analysis by using the material’s magnetotransport properties. Mass production of MXene is currently not available as its surface is ultra-thin, which takes days for analysis even with a high-performance electron microscope, the team said.

Some stocks related to MXene technologies hit their daily upper limits with a trading frenzy on Monday.

Huvis Corp., a textile manufacturer that has a patent on MXene-related polymeric nanocomposites production, saw its shares soar 29.9% to hit their daily upper circuit of 8,420 won ($6.27) on Monday. The main bourse Kospi-listed firm logged 1.2 trillion won in revenue and an 81.5 billion won net loss last year.

Kyungdong Invest Co., a Kospi-listed energy supplier, surged 30% to hit a daily limit of 131,400 won on the same day. The firm reported 275.5 billion won in revenue and 9.4 billion won in net profit last year.

Naintech Co., a battery manufacturing equipment maker listed on the junior bourse Kosdaq, saw its shares jump 29.8% to reach the maximum limit of 6,250 won on the same day. It posted 88.8 billion won in revenue and a 400 million won in net profit for last year.

Shares of Kornic Automation Co., a Kosdaq-listed smart factory software provider, rose 29.9% to reach an upper circuit of 6,000 won on the day. It doesn’t operate a business related to MXene, but investors flocked to the stock as the firm boasts Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) Professor Choi Kyung-cheol, who has developed flexible organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) by using MXene technology, as an outside director.

Kornic Automation posted 30.1 trillion won in revenue and a 5.6 billion won net loss last year.

Meanwhile, stocks related to superconductors, which saw a weeks' long investment craze in Korea, continue to plunge as scientific magazine Nature on Aug. 16 reported the German-based Max Planck Institute’s conclusion that the Korean team’s material LK-99 is not a real superconductor.

Shares of battery material maker Shinsung Delta Tech Co., which soared nearly fivefold from July 21 to Aug. 17, dropped 29.9% to close at 42,000 won on Monday.

Powerlogics Co., a camera module maker, saw its stock fall 30% to close at 10,640 won on the same day. Shares of nuclear fusion energy firm Mobiis Co., which plunged 33.9% during the final two days of the last week, fell 2.3% to finish at 2,975 won on Monday.

Write to A-Young Yoon at youngmoney@hankyung.com

Jihyun Kim edited this article.