South Korean stocks traded 0.3 percent higher late Tuesday morning, buoyed by gains in builders and IT services companies, analysts said.   The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) rose 6 points to 1,985.97 as of 11:20 a.m.  Daelim Industrial, a leading construction firm, climbed 2.6 percent and NHN Corp., the No. 1 Internet portal service provider, gained 1.6 percent.  In contrast, utilities and brokerages lost ground. State-run Korea Electric Power Corp. sank more than 2 percent

The nuclear safety commission halted the operation of two nuclear reactors Tuesday, while also suspending the scheduled operation of two other reactors for substandard parts used in the reactors.Neither the shutdown of the reactors nor the substandard parts used in them posed immediate threats to public safety, according to the Nuclear Safety and Security Commission.The commission said it has shut down two reactors -- the Shin Kori Reactor 2 and Shin Wolsong Reactor 1 -- after learning that subs

South Korean stocks opened higher Tuesday, as a slowdown in the yen's depreciation encouraged investors to make risky bets, analysts said.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) gained 5.25 points, or 0.27 percent to 1,985.22 in the first 15 minutes of trading. Large-cap chemical makers and heavy industries led the gain, with LG Chem climbing 1.4 percent and Hyundai Heavy Industries, the world's largest shipyard, moving up 0.3 percent.The Japanese currency slowed its fast-descend

Samsung Electronics Co. regained its status as the world's largest smartphone seller in the first quarter of the year, dethroning Apple Inc. in terms of revenue, data showed on Tuesday.Samsung sold smartphones worth US$23.62 billion in the January-March period, regaining the top spot lost to the iPhone maker in the fourth quarter of last year, according to the data by market researcher Strategy Analytics.The first-quarter figure is up $952 million from the previous quarter's reading, they showed

The state-run Korea Trade Insurance Corp., known as K-sure, and Korea Export-Import Bank will offer $1.5 billion in loans to the “Sabine Pass” liquefied natural gas project in the U.S., K-sure said on Monday.The LNG project refers to the LNG-related facility expansion project at Sabine Pass in the state of Louisiana, which will allow the U.S. to export LNG for the first time in its history. The U.S. government has stepped up lifting a ban on LNG exports in line with the rising supply of natural

SEJONG (Yonhap News) ― South Korea’s antitrust watchdog has launched an investigation into Daum Communications Corp. on suspicion that it might have been using its market power to force suppliers to accept unfair business deals, sources said Monday.Earlier in the day, the Fair Trade Commission sent a team of investigators to the headquarters of Daum, the country’s second-largest portal operator, to obtain necessary data and documents, according to the sources.The probe will likely focus on wheth

Mahindra Group chairman Anand Mahindra’s Twitter handle (@anandmahindra) was recently ranked fourth on the global list of the top 25 CEOs to follow on Twitter by the CEO Guru blog, the group said on Monday. The chairman’s Twitter handle, which has almost 800,000 followers, was praised for being a “lively Twitter account with lots of regional flavor.” He is the only Indian to be featured on this list. The top three executives on the list were Virgin Group chairman Richard Branson, News Corp chair

The government on Monday announced a set of measures, including the expansion of direct transactions between producers and consumers, to limit price hikes of farm products.The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs said the measures will help lower distribution costs by an average 10 to 15 percent by 2016.At the center of the plan is the National Agricultural Cooperative Federation, better known as Nonghyup, which will double its retail sales of farm products from 959.6 billion won ($84

Companies concerned over string of data, but waiting for more details