AhnLab Shares Soar on Founder's Political Ambitions

Shares of AhnLab surged to their daily limit for the second trading session after founder Ahn Cheol-soo came top in opinion polls for likely candidates in next month's Seoul mayoral by-election.

AhnLab, in which Ahn is a majority shareholder, surged by its daily 15 percent limit shortly after trading started on the tech-heavy Kosdaq on Monday. Investors snapped up more than 870,000 shares even at the daily limit high.

On Friday, shares also surged by the daily limit, raising the price from W34,650 to W45,750 (US$1=W1,070) in just two trading days. Ahn, who owns 37.1 percent, saw the value of his stake rise by W41.2 billion to some W170 billion.

But analysts say the movements may not last and urged investors to be cautious. Lee Seung-yong, senior researcher at Dongbu Securities, said, "AhnLab's recent earnings were good and the shift in focus in the IT industry from hardware to software has had an impact on the recent share price, but the surge we've seen over the past two days seems excessive."