South Korean stocks closed almost flat on Friday as investors set on the sidelines ahead of major events around the globe, analysts said. The local currency gained against the U.S. dollar.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) edged up 0.18 percent, or 3.67 points, to 2018.89. Trading volume was moderate at 403.2 million shares worth 3.9 trillion won (US$3.66 billion) with gainers outpacing losers 422 to 375."The stock market moved in a narrow range as investors took a wait-and-

South Korean stocks traded 0.47 percent higher late Friday morning due to gains in carmakers and shipbuilders, analysts said.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) climbed 9.46 points to 2,024.68 as of 11:20 a.m.Carmakers led the market gain, with No. 1 player Hyundai Motor advancing 1.39 percent and its smaller affiliate Kia Motors adding 0.73 percent. Top auto parts manufacturer Hyundai Mobis moved up 0.65 percent.Shipbuilders also gathered ground, with Hyundai Heavy Industrie

South Korean handset maker LG Electronics Inc. said Friday it will release its flagship Optimus G smartphone in Europe this month.LG said the 4.7-inch display phone that runs on Qualcomm Inc.'s Snapdragon S4 Pro processor will go on sale in Sweden this month before being released in France and Germany.The move comes after LG released the premium smartphone in Canada, Japan, South Korea and the United States as part of its efforts to regain its presence in the mobile market.The company has sold m

South Korean stocks got off to a weak start on Friday, tracking overnight losses on Wall Street, analysts said.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) fell 6.68 points, or 0.33 percent, to 2,008.54 in the first 15 minutes of trading.Shares lost ground across the board, with market behemoth Samsung Electronics losing 1.35 percent, and top steelmaker POSCO falling 0.82 percent. No. 2 carmaker Kia Motors moved down 0.73 percent.U.S. stocks ended lower Thursday on concerns that the F

State-run power company Korea Electric Power Corp. (KEPCO) is facing the worst debt problems among public organizations due to government regulations, a report said Friday.The report by the Korea Institute of Public Finance classify public organizations in four categories in terms of financial stability -- very dangerous, dangerous, cautious and safe -- and said that KEPCO's financial status is "very dangerous" given its current debt problems.KEPCO received the worst grading as its debt came to

Hyun and Cho to tackle household debt, exchange-rate volatility to counter systemic risk

Korea’s top 30 corporate brands were worth a combined 94.36 trillion won ($86 billion). Topping the list was Samsung Electronics, whose brand value accounted for one-third of the combined amount, according to Interbrand and Fortune Korea on Thursday.Interbrand is a leading global brand consultancy that annually announces the world’s 100 best brands. Jez Frampton, the chief executive at Interbrand, said that Korea was a key market driving innovation, and that was why Interbrand had eyes on Korea.

South Korea’s household credit rose to a fresh record high in the fourth quarter as the government’s temporary housing tax benefits raised demand for mortgage loans, the central bank said Thursday.Household credit totaled 959.4 trillion won ($997.2 billion) as of the end of December, up 23.6 trillion won from three months earlier, in contrast to an 11.8 trillion won gain in the third quarter, according to the Bank of Korea.The on-quarter growth picked up, but compared with a year earlier, the gr

South Korea’s anti-trust watchdog has opened an internal audit into allegations that E-Mart Co., the country’s largest discount chain operator, lobbied its officials to stop them from reporting the company’s unfair trading practices, industry sources said Thursday. The audit comes after the recent leak of confidential documents of Shinsegae Group, the parent company of the discount chain operator, that included E-Mart’s illegal lobbying of Fair Trade Commission officials in a bid to have them ke

Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co., a South Korean shipbuilder, said Thursday that it has won a $1.1 billion contract to build part of an offshore oil production platform.Under the deal with Statoil of Norway, Daewoo Shipbuilding will deliver the topside of the platform by the end of 2016, the company said in a statement.The platform has a capacity of producing 63,000 barrels of oil and 90,000 cubic meters of natural gas on a daily basis, according to Daewoo Shipbuilding.So far this ye