About one-third of South Korean companies listed on the secondary stock market chalked up net losses in the third quarter due largely to a prolonged global economic downturn, data showed Thursday.

A total of 260 companies listed on the tech-heavy KOSDAQ market, or 33 percent of the 789 companies surveyed, lost money in the July-September period, according to the data by the Korea Exchange and the Korea Listed Companies Association.

Currently, 882 companies are registered with the minor bourse.

Third-quarter results for the remaining 203 firms were not available.

The combined net profit of the surveyed firms dropped 2.97 percent on-quarter to 885.1 billion won ($815.7 million), with revenue falling 2.08 percent to 22.8 trillion won and their operating profit dipping 13.96 percent to 1.23 trillion won.

Most industries fared worse, with the operating profit of manufacturers tumbling 25.35 percent and that of IT companies shrinking 8.06 percent over the cited period. Those two sectors account for about 82 percent of the firms listed on the smaller bourse. (Yonhap News)