South Korea's Cabinet on Tuesday approved a measure to remove import tariffs on egg products in the latest effort to resolve a supply shortage sparked by outbreaks of bird flu here, officials said. The move will allow local companies to import 28,000 tons of eggs -- 13,000 tons of shell eggs and 600 tons of hatching eggs and 14,400 tons of other products -- without tariffs up until the end of th...

South Korean shares move up late Tuesday morning, paring earlier losses, helped by a buying-spree by institutions. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index rose 23.94 points, or 1 percent, to 2,462.65 as of 11:20 a.m. The broad index started lower, but soon turned positive as institutional buyers scooped up market heavyweights. Most large caps traded in positive terrain with market king...

The number of people in South Korea with financial assets worth more than 1 billion won ($892,295) rose 14.8 percent on year to 242,000 last year, thanks to the robust stock market, a report showed Tuesday. According to the annual survey by KB Financial Group Inc.'s research institute, people classified as wealthy held a total of 552 trillion won worth of financial assets in 2016, accounting for...

South Korea's exports continued their rally for nine straight months by rising a sharp 19.5 percent last month on brisk overseas sales of semiconductors, the trade ministry said Tuesday. Outbound shipments came to $48.85 billion in July, up from $40.88 billion tallied a year earlier, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. The country's exports have been on a steady rise since ...

South Korea's central bank said Tuesday that it has set up a system meant to detect overseas financial instability at an early stage in the latest move to better cope with any possible external shock that could affect Asia's fourth-largest economy. The Bank of Korea said about 40 staff members will gather information to assess and analyze the resilience and vulnerabilities of the financial syste...

South Korean stocks opened lower early Tuesday due to losses by technology companies, such as market kingpin Samsung Electronics, analysts said. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index fell 4.89 points, or 0.18 percent, to 2,398.32 in the first 15 minutes of trading. Tech shares mostly lost ground, with Samsung Electronics moving down 1.2 percent and No. 2 chipmaker SK hynix shedding 1....

British investors were most active stock traders among foreigners in South Korea in June, with Americans holding the largest amount of local shares, the financial watchdog said Tuesday. The value of local stocks traded by offshore investors came to slightly upwards of 78 trillion won ($69.7 billion) in June, accounting for nearly 30 percent of the total market turnover, according to data by the ...

South Korean institutional investors loaded up on stocks in the final sessions of July, helping the local stock market keep its bullish run, data showed Tuesday. In a turnaround from their net selling position, local institutions turned net buyers in the final four days of last month, purchasing a net 1.78 trillion won ($1.59 billion) for all of the month, according to the data by the bourse ope...

President Moon Jae-in’s administration is pushing for a steep increase in the minimum wage as a key stepping stone for its income-led growth policy. But critics say sharp pay increases detached from the reality faced by most businesses in the country might drag down the economy. Complaints are simmering especially from small business owners over last month’s decision by a commission of represen...

South Korea’s main bourse index on Monday saw a recovery from Friday’s drop of 1.73 percent, the largest in nearly 13 months. The Kospi edged up 0.07 percent from Friday to close at 2,402.71 on Monday. Tech giants Samsung Electronics and SK hynix rose 0.92 percent and 2.17 percent, slight recoveries compared to slides of 4.1 percent and 5.56 percent, respectively, Friday. While viewing Friday’s...

South Korean stocks finished slightly higher Monday with institutions going on a buying spree as foreign and individual investors dumped local shares to lock in recent gains, amid growing geopolitical tensions caused by North Korea's intercontinental ballistic missile launch, analysts said. The Korean won rose against the US dollar. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index edged up 1.72 p...

South Korea's financial regulator said Monday that the performance of two major policy lenders has improved as the restructuring of shipbuilders and two major shipping lines have been concluded. The Financial Services Commission said it has raised the rating of the Korea Development Bank and the Export-Import Bank of Korea by one notch from C to B in its annual assessment of five public financia...

The number of employees at some of the country’s largest firms hit a seven-year low in the second quarter of the year, according to data compiled by Statistics Korea on Monday. Government data showed that the number of employees at companies with workforces of more than 300 reached 2.46 million workers in the second quarter of this year, a decrease of 25,000 compared to a year ago. The fall i...

The number of new corporations set up in the first half of this year reached nearly 50,000, setting a new record amid steady overseas demands for local products, the government said Monday. The number of new corporations set up came to 49,424 in the January-June period, up 2.4 percent from the same period last year, according to the Ministry of SMEs and Startups. Among the total, 10,107 compani...

Bank lending rates on new household loans inched down in June and interest rates paid by banks on new deposits slightly rose, central bank data showed Monday. The average interest rates on fresh household loans extended by local banks came to 3.41 percent in June, down 0.06 percentage point from the previous month, according to the Bank of Korea. The BOK data came amid South Korea's efforts to ...