Most Popular
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Yoon calls for dialogue, trust from medical community
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NK leader guides firing drills involving super-large multiple rocket launchers
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Dyson founder visits Seoul for global debut of new hair dryer
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Leaders call for action against threats to democracy posed by AI
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Asiana Airlines wins data transfer certification in China
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Dispute heats up over dispatch of scandal-ridden envoy to Australia
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Dodgers beat S. Korea in final exhibition before MLB opener in Seoul
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Disgraced ex-K-pop star released after serving time for sex crimes
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Trump unlikely to unravel IRA: experts
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Koreans more open to foreigners in society than LGBTQ+: data
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Seoul stocks open higher on US tech gains
South Korean shares opened higher Tuesday on overnight tech gains on Wall Street, despite a surge in new coronavirus cases here. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) rose 16.1 points, or 0.69 percent, to 2,342.27 in the first 15 minutes of trading. Trading kicked off bullish after a 1.17 percent plunge in the previous session amid virus woes. Investor sentiment was boosted after the tech-savvy Nasdaq Composite advanced 86.75 points, or 0.76 percent, to close at 11,466.47
Sept. 1, 2020
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Seoul stocks plunge over 1% on record-high foreign dumping
South Korean shares dipped more than 1 percent Monday, as foreign sell-offs soared to an all-time high amid the spreading new coronavirus fears. The Korean won fell against the US dollar. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) lost 27.63 points, or 1.17 percent, to close at 2,326.17. Trading volume was high at about 1.6 billion shares worth some 19 trillion won ($16 billion), with gainers outnumbering losers 498 to 350. The index set out strong on the Fed's dovish signal but t
Aug. 31, 2020
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Kakao Games likely to issue most successful IPO in Korea
The initial public offering of Kakao Games is likely to be the most successful market debut in South Korea’s history in terms of the number of applicants for its shares, according to market watchers on Monday. In the two-day book building for institutional investors that wrapped up on Thursday, a total of 1,745 domestic and foreign institutional investors participated in the tranche and bid for 11.28 million shares, or 70.49 percent of the total. Competition for stocks by institutional
Aug. 31, 2020
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Korean pension funds cushion pandemic impact in H1
South Korea’s pension funds took positive returns in the first half of this year, as they managed to weather the impact of the novel coronavirus on financial markets across the globe, disclosures showed Monday. The National Pension Service, Korea’s largest public pension fund with 752.2 trillion won ($635.5 billion) assets under management, posted a 0.5 percent return Friday as its stock losses were offset by fixed-income assets and alternative investments. By asset classes, from
Aug. 31, 2020
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JB Financial launches Vietnam-based brokerage firm JBSV
JB Financial Group said Monday it has launched a brokerage unit through its newly acquired Morgan Stanley Gateway Securities, a midsized brokerage firm headquartered in Hanoi, Vietnam. It has changed the company name to JB Securities Vietnam as part of a move to officially start operations, the group added. Earlier in April, the banking group paid for its 100 percent stake in MSGS -- previously owned by global investment bank Morgan Stanley -- and recently received final approval from
Aug. 31, 2020
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Seoul stocks open sharply higher on economic rebound hopes
South Korean shares opened sharply higher Monday on hopes of an economic rebound, despite the government's implementation of toughened social distancing measures. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) rose 22.97 points, or 0.98 percent, to 2,376.77 in the first 15 minutes of trading. Investor sentiment ran high in the wake of the US Fed Reserve's shift of stance signaling that it will stay accommodative for longer even if US inflation exceeds its target level of 2 percent.
Aug. 31, 2020
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[Future of Plastic Cards] Through human-robot collaboration, Hyundai Card seeks digital transformation
This is the second installment in a series of articles, interviews and videos assessing the future of credit cards and the challenges ahead. -- Ed. On the ninth floor of Hyundai Card’s Card Factory, where 5 million plastic credit cards are produced every year, a barista named Billie makes coffee every day. The machine learning-powered robot, trained by award-winning Korean barista Lee Jong-hoon, has his own employee identification number: 410713. While the robot brews coffee, human c
Aug. 30, 2020
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Colliers exec advises Korean investors to join debt financing for US warehouses
South Korean institutional investors may see opportunities in the US commercial real estate market as industrial properties in the country garner traction amid the resumption of sales activities, an executive at Colliers International said Thursday. While pointing out that major global blue-chip investors are increasingly tapping into top-tier warehouses in the US, Jeff Black, executive vice president of the company, said Koreans may have room to partner with them as long as they are willing to
Aug. 30, 2020
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Top 10 Kospi stocks' market cap approaches 45%
South Korea’s 10 largest stocks trading on the main bourse Kospi are seeing its combined market cap account for 45 percent of Kospi constitutents‘ total market cap as local retail investors flock to the large-caps betting on changes in the domestic industry. According to data by the Korea Exchange, the top 10 large-caps on the Kospi stock market took up 44.78 percent of Kospi’s market cap on average in August, up over 11 percentage points on-year. The figure has been on a co
Aug. 30, 2020
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Seoul stocks finish higher on US Fed's dovish signal
South Korean shares closed higher Friday on the US Fed Reserve's dovish gesture, but gains were trimmed due to the heightened social distancing level in the greater Seoul area. The Korean won rose against the US dollar. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) rose 9.35 points, or 0.4 percent, to close at 2,353.8. Trading volume was high at about 1.3 billion shares worth some 15.3 trillion won ($12.9 billion), with gainers outnumbering losers 583 to 253. Foreigners sold a net 2
Aug. 28, 2020
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Large-sized apartment prices in Seoul surpasses W2b mark
The market price of large-sized apartments in Seoul surpassed the 2 billion won ($1.69 million) mark in August, reflecting the unsubdued housing price rally in popular areas, industry data showed Friday. According to the monthly housing price trend report by KB Kookmin Bank, the average transaction price for large-sized apartments came to 2.03 billion won, exceeding the milestone for the first time since the bank started tallying such data in 2016. The latest figure was up 171.54 million w
Aug. 28, 2020
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Viva Republica raises additional $173m funds to drive new initiative
Viva Republica, operator of mobile fintech platform Toss, said Friday that it has raised $173 million in new funding from multiple investors to drive its new initiative to open a comprehensive financial service application. Investors participating in the fundraise include Aspex Management, Sequoia Capital China, Kleiner Perkins Digital Growth Fund, Altos Ventures, Goodwater Capital, and Greyhound Capital. Despite the pandemic-sparked market turmoil, the latest funding marks the single larges
Aug. 28, 2020
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Seoul stocks open higher on US gains
South Korean shares opened higher Friday, taking a cue from overnight gains on Wall Street, despite concerns over the rising new COVID-19 cases at home. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) rose 13.12 points, or 0.56 percent, to 2,357.57 in the first 15 minutes of trading. Stocks traded bullish, after the index plunged 1.05 percent the previous session due to spreading new COVID-19 cases. Investor sentiment strengthened on an overnight speech by Federal Reserve Chairman
Aug. 28, 2020
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Banks, brokerages to return principals to investors in fund misselling scandal
Banks and brokerages that handled fund products by a local asset manager said Thursday they will return the principals on investments made by consumers, in line with the advisory issued by the country's financial regulator. Hana Bank, Woori Bank, Mirae Asset Daewoo Co. and Shinhan Investment Corp. said their boards accepted calls to provide full refunds in regard to the misselling scandal centered on Lime Asset Management Co. The dispute settlement board at the Financial Supervisory Service c
Aug. 27, 2020
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S. Korea to extend short-selling ban until March
South Korea’s top financial regulator said Thursday its temporary ban on short-selling activities of all listed Korean shares will be extended to March 2021, immediately after the current six-month restriction expires in September. The Financial Services Commission’s decision is meant to keep the stock market volatility at bay as the impact of the coronavirus still persists across the nation. The decision was made as FSC collected written agreements from its commissioners after the
Aug. 27, 2020
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NH Investment to repay Optimus investors in advance
NH Investment & Securities, a brokerage unit of South Korea’s NongHyup Financial Group, decided Thursday to offer up to 70 percent of funds invested in now-frozen Optimus Asset Management’s funds via the firm. Stressing its ethical, not legal, responsibility as the seller of the troubled fund, the company said it would pay 30-70 percent of investment funds to retail and corporate investors in advance. The payment is not a sort of compensation, but is designed to provide financi
Aug. 27, 2020
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Seoul stocks snap 4-day winning streak on spiking virus cases
South Korean shares ended a four-session winning streak Thursday, as the daily new virus cases in the country spiked to a nearly six-month high. The Korean won rose against the US dollar. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) lost 24.87 points, or 1.05 percent, to close at 2,344.45. Trading volume was high at about 898 million shares worth some 14.9 trillion won ($12.6 billion), with losers outnumbering gainers 725 to 152. Foreigners sold a net 24 billion won, ending a four
Aug. 27, 2020
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KB Financial’s acquisition of Prudential Life approved
KB Financial Group said Thursday that it has received approval from the Financial Services Commission to acquire Prudential Life Insurance of Korea. In April, the Korean financial giant inked a deal with Prudential to buy a 100 percent stake in the insurance company for some 2.3 trillion won ($1.94 billion). It is scheduled to pay for the acquisition by Monday. When the deal closes, the insurance firm will become the financial group’s 13th subsidiary. The takeover of the nation&rsquo
Aug. 27, 2020
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Macquarie IM Korea names new CEO
Macquarie Investment Management has named Bastiaan Jeroen van Buuren as its new chief executive to oversee its Korean operation, a filing showed Thursday. The change of leadership has been effective since Aug. 18. Van Buuren replaced Lee Kyung-soo, who served for 16 months at the top post. Joining the Australian asset management house in 2018, van Buuren was head of Asia Distribution based in Hong Kong. He joined Macquarie IM Korea’s board in June 2020. Macquarie IM acquired ING Inve
Aug. 27, 2020
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Kakao, Naver shares continue to surge amid prolonged virus battle
Shares of South Korea’s top mobile messenger operator Kakao and leading portal operator Naver continued their bullish run on the local stock market Thursday, on investors’ profit-taking drive from “untact” -- contactless -- sectors amid the spike in COVID-19 pandemic cases. Kakao’s stock price began trading at 392,000 won ($330.38), then rose by 18,500 won, or 4.72 percent, to close at 410,500 won. It once soared up to 413,000 won in later trading hours, jumping ab
Aug. 27, 2020