South Korean stocks traded 0.2 percent lower late Thursday morning, led by losses in autos and builders, analysts said.   The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) shed 3.78 points to 1,931.80 as of 11:20 a.m.   Carmakers traded lower, with No. 1 player Hyundai Motor falling 2.99 percent and its smaller affiliate Kia Motors losing 0.38 percent. Top auto parts maker Hyundai Mobis shed 3.04 percent.   Construction firms also lost ground, with Hyundai Engineering & Construction decre

South Korea's central bank on Thursday revised down its economic growth forecast for this year to 2.6 percent from its earlier estimate of 2.8 percent amid the global slowdown.The Bank of Korea (BOK)'s revised numbers are higher than the government's recent growth estimate of 2.3 percent for this year.The government of President Park Geun-hye sharply cut its 2013 growth projection from an earlier 3 percent in March, vowing to implement strong stimulus measures including creation of an extra budg

South Korea's central bank froze the key interest rate for the sixth straight month on Thursday in an apparent bid to preserve policy room for rainy days, rejecting the government's call to join the stimulus drive.Bank of Korea (BOK) Gov. Kim Choong-soo and his fellow policymakers left the benchmark seven-day repo rate unchanged at 2.75 percent. The bank lowered the borrowing costs in July and October last year.The decision was not anticipated as only two out of 25 analysts predicted the rate fr

South Korean stocks opened higher on Thursday, following an overnight Wall Street rally fueled by growing anticipation of an economic recovery, analysts said.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) moved up 3.52 points, or 0.18 percent, to 1,939.10 in the first 15 minutes of trading.Shares gathered ground across the board, with market behemoth Samsung Electronics adding 0.2 percent and top chipmaker SK hynix rising 2.33 percent. No. 2 carmaker Kia Motors advanced 1.15 percent.U.S

Two somber new reports show unprecedented declines in desktop and laptop sales during the first three months of the year _ signs that the personal computer market may never fully recover from a new generation of mobile devices.And it appears that a makeover of Microsoft's Windows operating system seems to have done more harm than good since the software was released in October.“This is horrific news for PCs,” said BGC Financial analyst Colin Gillis. “It's all about mobile computing now.”First-qu

The Website of South Korea's public broadcaster KBS suffered a series of malfunctions on Wednesday for an unidentified reason, officials said.The broadcaster's Website went off line from 8:00 p.m. to 8:18 p.m. for a third time on Wednesday, following two malfunctions reported earlier in the evening, according to company officials.The broadcaster said it is currently trying to find out the cause of the failures, adding that it is unlikely that hackers were behind it. KBS added that there have bee

Viagra gave up its top position in Korea to its competitor Cialis for the first time.According to industry data, sales of Cialis totaled 26.9 billion won ($23.6 million) last year, topping Viagra’s 25.6 billion won.This is the first time that Viagra did not take the No. 1 spot in the local pharmaceutical industry since its release here in October 1999.“With the massive release of generic products of Viagra, the product positioning has seen changes,” an official of a firm selling erectile dysfunc

NongHyup Bank, the banking unit of South Korean financial holding company NongHyup Financial Group Inc., said Wednesday its online and smartphone banking system was paralyzed for an unknown reason.The bank said that an error occurred at 6:20 p.m. at its operating system located in Anseong, 77 kilometers from Seoul. The online transaction system remained malfunctioning as of 7:35 p.m."No hacking activities were identified behind the failure," an official from the bank said. "We are currently maki

Samsung Display on Wednesday denied that it had been investigated for technology espionage against its rival LG Display following reports that the police had raided its offices the day before.“Samsung is the only company in the world possessing OLED (organic light-emitting diode) technology. Our concern is that our technology may be leaked, not vice versa,” Samsung Display chief executive Kim Ki-nam told reporters after a weekly Samsung executive meeting.On Tuesday, the cyber crime unit of Seoul

Representatives of Hyundai Motor’s auto parts suppliers on Wednesday called for the resumption of weekend overtime work at the carmaker’s Ulsan factory which has been suspended since March due to labor-management disputes on overtime pay.“Following the suspension of overtime work at the carmaker, suppliers are facing escalating damage to their profits. We are also not paying our employees properly as normal,” the group said in a statement on Wednesday.The Hyundai Motor union has refused to work

South Korean stocks closed 0.77 percent higher Wednesday, buoyed by easing Chinese inflation data that offset heightening fears over North Korea’s repeated war threats, analysts said. The local currency inched up against the U.S. dollar. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index climbed 14.84 points to finish at 1,935.58. Trading volume was light at 312.4 million shares worth 4.08 trillion won ($3.57 billion) with advancers far outpacing decliners 640 to 187. “A country’s economic policy s

The Fair Trade Commission began looking into whether Lotte Group pushed suppliers of Lotte Confectionery to cut costs, laying a possible touchstone for the Park Geun-hye administration’s much-played-up initiative to help out small and medium-sized firms.Lotte Group recently sent its auditing staff to suppliers of Lotte Confectionery and demanded they submit materials on management. After reviewing the submitted data, Lotte concluded that the suppliers collected about 1 billion won ($880,000) in

Per capita alcohol consumption in South Korea has declined in recent years due to improved drinking culture, a trade association said Wednesday.According to data by the Korea Alcohol & Liquor Industry Association, the alcohol consumption per South Korean aged 15 or older came to 9.18 liters in 2011, down 3.2 percent from 2007 when the association started compiling related data.The fall stemmed from local drinking culture improved by increased interest in health since the late 2000s, the associat