SM Entertainment’s second quarter earnings, which were announced Wednesday (Aug. 2), helped shares of the K-pop music company, home to such acts as NCT Dream and Red Velvet, gain 7.6% to 137,700 won ($105.59) this week. That made it the top performer of the 21 stocks in the Billboard Global Music Index this week.
The index fell 1.9% to 1,360.05 in a week in which stocks were broadly down around the world. In the United States, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq composite fell 2.3% and 2.8%, respectively, marking their worst weeks since March. The FTSE 100 in the United Kingdom declined 1.7%. South Korea’s KOSPI composite index declined 0.2%.
The return of the concert business helped SM Entertainment revenues grow 30% to 239.8 billion won ($184 million), beating the 20.3% year-over-year improvement in the first quarter of 2023. SM artists had 60 concerts in the second quarter compared to six in the prior-year…
