HLB, SPG and Peptron each rose more than 50% over the past month on the KOSDAQ, South Korea’s secondary stock exchange for small and mid-cap companies. Their gains stood out against weakness in the KOSPI, the country’s main stock index, which was pressured after a historic crash as tighter rules on leveraged ETFs and a selloff in chip stocks weighed on sentiment. The move suggests investors rotated away from large-cap pressure points and into smaller growth names tied to drug development, robotics and obesity-related themes.