Korea’s top 10 market heavyweights increased their presence in the local stock market with their portion reaching 35 percent against total market capitalization, data showed on Tuesday.

According to the data compiled by the Korea Exchange, the local bourse operator, the combined market cap of the top 10 players, including Samsung Electronics Co., reached 396.59 trillion won ($345 billion) on Monday.

The portion has been rising steadily since reaching 33.6 percent in January, a huge jump from 28.8 percent tallied in January 2008, before the collapse of Lehman Brothers.

Samsung Electronics, the country’s top market cap, accounted for 15.1 percent of the total as of Monday, compared with 7.78 percent reached in the first month of 2008, the data showed.

“The top 10 market cap shares showed that they weathered the financial crisis and economic slump, which led to a rise in their market presence,” said Lee Young-won, an analyst at HMC Investment & Securities.

The data also showed that export-oriented firms saw their portion increase over the cited period, but domestic-focused companies suffered a slide in their market cap ranking.

Hyundai Motor Co., Korea’s leading automaker, rose to the second spot in terms of market cap, a huge jump from the 11th ranking in 2008. Its affiliates ― Kia Motors Corp. and Hyundai Mobis Co. ― were also among the top five market cap shares, findings by the KRX showed.

On the other hand, SK Telecom Co., which was the seventh-largest market cap in 2008, ranked 17th on Monday. The state-run Korea Electric Power Corp. also saw its ranking slide to the 11th spot from the fourth-largest market cap over the cited period. (Yonhap News)