Seegene, a Korean diagnostics company acclaimed for having preemptively developed COVID-19 test kits before the pandemic even reached Korea, has since risen to the second rank on the Kosdaq bourse.

The ongoing coronavirus threat has shifted the market positions of companies across industries, with businesses relevant to COVID-19 especially gaining an edge.

On Tuesday, Seegene ranked second only to Celltrion Healthcare on the Kosdaq with a market capitalization of 4.84 trillion won ($4.04 billion).

Rounding out the top five were anti-cancer drug research firm HLB, Celltrion Pharma and biosimilar maker Alteogen.

As of 12:30 p.m., Seegene shares were upbeat, rising 3.36 percent from a day earlier.

Seegene’s sudden ascension in market value is all the more striking when compared to where the company stood just last year.

Prior to COVID-19, Seegene had mainly worked with university hospitals to test specimens from patients for diagnoses.

At the end of 2019, Seegene sat at No. 43 on Kosdaq.

Buoyed by skyrocketing demand for made-in-Korea COVID-19 test kits, Seegene is achieving record earnings this year.

According to financial information service Yonhap Infomax, Seegene’s second-quarter operating profit is predicted to reach 156.1 billion won -- 30 times that of last year’s second-quarter report.

By Lim Jeong-yeo (kaylalim@heraldcorp.com)