GS Shop, the nation’s No. 1 home shopping company, said Thursday that it will start airing commission-free programs introducing products made by smaller firms. The decision comes after four local home shopping channels, including GS, and government offices agreed in January on their cooperated efforts to support small- and mid-sized firms.Starting from April 14, GS plans to air a 45-minute program twice a month for selected quality items. No commission fees will be charged and all the profits fr

Hyundai Heavy Industries Co, South Korea’s leading shipbuilder, said Thursday that it has clinched a $1.9 billion deal to build an offshore oil production facility for Chevron Corp.Under the deal with the U.S. energy group, Hyundai heavy will build the so-called floating oil production and storage facility which is capable of processing 100,000 barrels of crude oil and 190 cubic meters of natural gas a day, and storing up to 1.05 million barrels of crude oil.The facility, 292 meters long, 57.4 m

SK Innovation, a key affiliate of SK Group, won the second round of its patent lawsuit against LG Chem over a key material used for electric car batteries, according to the company in a press release.On Thursday, the Patent Court of Korea dismissed the appeal that LG Chem filed at the end of 2012 to challenge the Korean Intellectual Property Tribunal’s decision to uphold SK Innovation.“The successive wins of SK Innovation in a legal battle with LG Chem testifies to SK Innovation’s technological

South Korean stocks closed 0.73 percent higher Thursday, buoyed by the United States Federal Reserve’s decision to maintain stimulus measures, analysts said.The local currency gained against the greenback.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index climbed 14.22 points to finish at 1,949.80. Trading volume was moderate at 380.3 million shares worth 4.71 trillion won ($4.17 billion) with advancers far outpacing decliners 552 to 244.“The Federal Reserve’s decision to maintain its stimulus meas

The amount of foreign direct investment into Korea hit a record high of $3.39 billion in the first quarter of this year, a 44.7 percent increase from a year ago, despite rising security concerns on the Korean Peninsula, according to data released Thursday by the Ministry Trade, Industry and Energy. “The data showed that the impact of geopolitical risks created by North Korea on investment decisions of foreigners were limited for the first three months of the year,” a ministry official said. The

The Bank of Korea said Thursday that it has decided to ease its credit policy to increase its supply of low-interest loans through commercial banks to small and medium enterprises.The central bank raised its aggregate credit ceiling to 12 trillion won ($10.6 billion) from 9 trillion won, which has been maintained since October 2012.Loans will be extended to SMEs and start-ups that have “exceptional” technology with interest rates of 0.5-1.25 percent, down from 1.25 percent through a rise in the

LG Uplus said on Thursday that it will introduce a new monthly mobile plan that offers unlimited voice calls for its LTE smartphone subscribers.Lee Sang-chul, vice chairman of the telecommunications company, said that its subscribers will be able to freely call mobile phones with their smartphones running on the fourth-generation LTE networks for as much as 69,000 won ($61) per month.While introducing eight new monthly mobile plans that offer free voice calling options, the plans range from 34,0

One in every 4 chief executives at South Korea’s top listed conglomerates will likely be exempt from disclosing his or her salary, despite the government’s latest move to revamp rules to shore up corporate transparency, data showed Thursday.The number of registered chief executive officers at the top 50 family-owned large enterprises known as chaebol, stood at 38, according to the data compiled by the Financial Supervisory Service. The remaining 12 were either not registered C-suite members or r

A 27-year-old Iranian scientist claimed to have invented a “time machine” device that can predict the future, local media reported Thursday.Ali Razeghi, a managing director of Iran’s Center for Strategic Inventions, said the device runs by a complex set of algorithms to “predict details of the next five to eight years of the life of its users.” He claimed that the machine’s accuracy is 98 percent.He said the Iranian government will be able to predict future events such as military conflicts and

South Korean stocks closed 0.73 percent higher Thursday, buoyed by the United States Federal Reserve's decision to maintain stimulus measures, analysts said.The local currency gained against the greenback.  The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) climbed 14.22 points to finish at 1,949.80. Trading volume was moderate at 380.3 million shares worth 4.71 trillion won (US$4.17 billion) with advancers far outpacing decliners 552 to 244."The Federal Reserve's decision to maintain its s