Big tech gives South Korea, Taiwan the edge over India

Mumbai: Equity markets in South Korea and Taiwan have been outperforming India, but their rally is largely driven by a handful of technology stocks, shows data from Bloomberg. For instance, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) contributes nearly 38% to Taiwan’s total market cap of $5 trillion while top five companies account for half of it and top 10 constitute 56%. For South Korea, Samsung and SK Hynix together contribute 46% to the country’s market cap of $4.8 trillion while the top 10 stocks account for 58%. In contrast, the top three stocks including Reliance Industries, HDFC Bank and Bharti Airtel – each with market cap above $100 billion – contribute 9% to the country’s market cap of $4.9 trillion while the top 10 stocks account for just over 18%.

Technology companies that cater to the artificial intelligence (AI) ecosystem have been attracting investments from foreign portfolio investors (FPIs). Taiwan’s market cap has increased by 54% in 2026 so far. Excluding TSMC, MediaTek and Delta Electronics the gain reduces to around 48%. In the case of South Korea, the difference is wider – the country’s market cap growth is trimmed to 40% from 81% after excluding Samsung and SK Hynix.

In contrast, India’s market cap has shrunk by nearly 7% since the beginning of 2026 amid unbated selling by FPIs. Each of the top 10 stocks based on market cap has failed to earn return so far this year. FPIs have sold equities worth $24.3 billion (₹2.3 lakh crore) till May 27, significantly exceeding their outflow of $18.9 billion (₹1.7 lakh crore) in 2025.

According to the Bloomberg data, South Korea hosts 2,730 actively traded stocks across its major stock exchanges while Taiwan has 2,437 listed stocks. In comparison, India has over 6,186 actively traded stocks, reflecting a deeper capital market.