Regulatory action aimed at uncovering irregular service fees

South Korean stocks closed marginally lower Thursday, as overseas investors continued to dump shares amid lingering economic jitters and a strong local currency, analysts said. The Korean won edged up against the U.S dollar.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index shed 3.18 points, or 0.16 percent, to finish at 1,974.27. Trading volume was heavy at 821.3 million shares worth 4.06 trillion won ($3.84 billion) with losers outnumbering gainers 450 to 342. “Investor sentiment has become more

SEJONG (Yonhap News) ― The Finance Ministry said Thursday that it has decided not to impose taxes on priests, monks and other religious leaders anytime soon, apparently leaving the controversial issue to the incoming government.The decision, which is part of the ministry’s tax code revision proposal unveiled earlier in the day, comes amid expectations that the government might push ahead with its earlier confirmed plan to tax the clergy under the principle that “there is a tax where there is an

LS Industrial Systems Co., a leading South Korean manufacturer of electric components, said Thursday it has won a $67 million deal to build a power distribution control center for the Iraqi government.Under the deal with Iraq’s Ministry of Electricity, the company will build seven distribution control centers across the country by early 2015, LS Industrial said in a press release. The deal is the biggest a local firm has won in the smart grid sector.The distribution control center, which operate

Samsung Display Co. has filed a suit against LG Display Co. seeking the invalidation of the latter’s patents on liquid crystal display, according to legal industry sources Thursday, the latest move in a heated patent tussle between the two display giants.LG Display, the world’s No. 2 maker of LCD, first raised three patent infringement claims on LCD technologies against Samsung Electronics Co. and Samsung Display.In a suit filed with the Seoul Central District Court last month, LG Display argued

Apparel giant E-Land Group inked a deal on Thursday to acquire Nasdaq-listed U.S. footwear company K-Swiss, Inc. for $170 million, becoming the first Korean company to buy a listed American fashion firm.Through taking over K-Swiss, which saw its sales halve from 2005 to around 600 billion won in 2011, E-Land plans to beef up its footwear line and business in China.About half of K-Swiss’ sales come from the U.S., and the other half from Europe and Asia.“By expanding our sports brand business from

A Dutch court on Wednesday ruled that Samsung Electronics did not infringe on design-related patents of Apple Inc. for its Galaxy tablets, including the flagship 10.1.“We welcome the court’s decision, as making unreasonable claims involving the general design will not be helpful for the consumers or for the development of the industry,” the Suwon-based company said in a statement. Samsung and Apple have been enmeshed in a high-profile patent battle for over a year now, with Samsung ordered to pa

The first reactor of the Uljin nuclear power plant in Uljin, North Gyeongsang Province, suspended its operations due to a technical malfunction, Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power said Thursday. The breakdown in a power measurement instrument in the reactor stopped operations, but the reactor is safe and without signs of radiation leakage, the KHNP said. The 25-year-old first reactor of the Uljin nuclear power plant, which has the power generation capacity of 950 megawatts, has raised safety concerns

The Bank of Korea is expected to brief the transition team of President-elect Park Geun-hye on overall monetary policy and economic outlook on Friday.BOK officials said that the subjects presented would range from overviews of its monetary policy to household debt and its economic forecast for 2013. Although the team’s official policy briefing ended on Thursday with the statistics bureau, the team included the central bank at the last minute after it had omitted it from the seven-day briefing sc

Huge project involves construction of oil production system and gas-to-liquid plants on 4 artificial islands

Hyundai Rotem was pounded by a U.S.-based public transportation agency for failing to follow through with a $190 million contract for providing new commuter rail cars.The U.S. company -- the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, or MBTA -- has consequently threatened to terminate the contract in case of further delays. According to a letter sent to Hyundai Rotem on Dec. 21 last year from Jonathan Davis, the MBTA’s chief financial officer, obtained by The Boston Globe, the procurement contr

South Korean stocks closed marginally lower Thursday, as overseas investors continued to dump shares amid lingering economic jitters and a strong local currency, analysts said. The Korean won edged up against the U.S dollar.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) shed 3.18 points, or 0.16 percent, to finish at 1,974.27. Trading volume was heavy at 821.3 million shares worth 4.06 trillion won (US$ 3.84 billion) with losers outnumbering gainers 450 to 342. "Investor sentiment has b

South Korean stocks traded 0.21 percent lower late Thursday mornings, as earlier gains in tech blue-chips and shipping lines pared down, analysts said. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) shed 4.12 points to 1,973.33 as of 11:20 a.m.Tech heavyweight Samsung Electronics dipped 1.7 percent, with chipmaker SK hynix losing nearly 1 percent. The country's leading bulk shipping firm STX PanOcean slumped around 4 percent. In contrast, autos and brokerage houses advanced, with indust