This drugmaker has rallied $15 billion in 11 days

After a 57 per cent stock rally in 11 trading days this year, one analyst has decided that now is the time to give South Korea’s Celltrion Inc. a sell rating.

Nomura Securities Co analyst Cara Song initiated coverage on both Celltrion and Celltrion Healthcare Co in a report dated January 16, recommending investors sell the stocks as both have been trading at a “significant premium” to their five-year historical average price-to-earnings ratio compared to their peers.

Incheon-based Celltrion’s rally nudged past Hyundai Motor Co, South Korea’s largest automaker, to become the third-biggest company by value on the country’s stock exchange after it launched a new drug for treating blood cancer in Europe last year and as South Korea’s Financial Services Commission introduced measures to drum up support for small-caps.

Celltrion’s market cap added $15 billion this year as it rallied to a record high on January 15. It slipped about 1 per cent Wednesday.

This isn’t the first time Song has taken a contrarian view on South Korean stocks. A couple of weeks ago, she published a report recommending that investors put their money in the nation’s benchmark equity index instead of cosmetic stocks as Chinese tourist arrivals won’t be as high as what the street expects.