Asian Covid Test Kit & Drug Stocks Rise Amid New Case Surge

Post by : Layla Badr

Shares of companies that make Covid test kits and medicines have gone up in Asia because Covid cases are rising again.

In South Korea, Sugentech Inc., a company that makes diagnostic test kits, had one of the biggest increases, with its stock price jumping by as much as 29% on Monday. In Japan, the shares of Daiichi Sankyo, a company that makes Covid vaccines, rose by as much as 7.4% after a big investment bank, UBS, said the company’s stock could be worth more than before. In Hong Kong, shares of Shanghai Junshi Biosciences Co., another company that makes Covid vaccines, went up by about 4.3%.

Health officials in Hong Kong and Singapore have warned that Covid-19 cases are rising quickly again. In China, experts say that this wave of Covid could soon reach the same high level it did last summer, based on information from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

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Edwin Tsui, who works at Hong Kong’s Centre for Health Protection, said that since life started returning to normal, Hong Kong has seen new waves of Covid every six to nine months. He added that they expect Covid cases to stay high for at least the next few weeks.

In South Korea, the government agency that controls diseases extended the time people can get seasonal Covid vaccinations by two months until the end of June. They are encouraging older adults (65 years and older), people with weak immune systems, hospital patients, and people living in care facilities to get the new JN.1 Covid vaccine made by Pfizer and BioNTech. The agency said Covid has been happening not only in winter but also in summer for the past three years. So, they recommend getting vaccinated soon to make sure people have enough protection.

On Monday, shares of several South Korean Covid test-kit companies—like Humasis Co., LabGenomics Co., Seegene Inc., and SD Biosensor Inc.—went up. The stock of SK Bioscience Co., a Covid vaccine maker, rose by as much as 7.2%.

Gary Tan, a portfolio manager at Allspring Global Investments in Singapore, said that in South Korea’s small pharmaceutical companies, individual investors are the main buyers. He added that many retail investors might be buying stocks in certain companies to take advantage of this situation.

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