South Korean stocks opened higher on Friday as overnight rallies on Wall Street cheered investors, analysts said.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) edged up 1.03 points, or 0.06 percent, to 1,823.99 in the first 15 minutes of trading.U.S. stocks closed higher on Thursday as earnings from technology companies outweighed concerns over weak employment data.Tech issues led the gai

Consumer groups plan class-action lawsuits, FSC mulls new rate to replace CD rateA brokerage firm admitted after the nation’s antitrust watchdog launched a probe that it colluded with other companies to rig interest rates of certificates of deposit, financial sources said on Thursday. Financial observers said the CD rate-rigging case could develop into a Korean version of the LIBOR or the London Interbank Offered Rate fixing scandal in Britain and have huge ramifications.Under the Fair Trade Com

U.K. court orders Apple to post notices that Samsung’s tablets didn’t copy iPad designSamsung Electronics has gained an edge in its global patent battle with its rival Apple Inc. as a U.K. court ordered the Cupertino-based firm to publish public notices that Galaxy tablet PCs did not copy the iPad’s designs.On Wednesday, U.K. Judge Colin Birss ordered Apple to post a notice on the firm’s U.K. website and in British newspapers alerting people that Samsung did not copy the designs of the iPad for

The United States and China surpassed Korea as the largest markets for cars made by Hyundai Motor Co. and Kia Motors Corp. in the first half of 2012, industry sources said Thursday.Combined sales of Korea’s top two carmakers in the home market stood at 567,251 in the January-June period, while numbers for the U.S. and China reached 645,376 and 593,896 each.The tally marks the first time that sales to individual foreign countries have surpassed the number for the domestic market. Both Hyundai and

Korea’s energy imports posted solid gains during the first half of this year as costs of purchasing crude oil and natural gas jumped, customs data showed Thursday.South Korea imported $81.5 billion worth of crude oil, natural gas and coal during the January-June period, up 14.6 percent in value from a year earlier, according to the data by the Korea Customs Service. The increase is attributed to a spike in average import prices of crude oil and natural gas, which jumped 11.3 percent and 26.2 per

POSCO, South Korea’s leading steelmaker, said Thursday that it has bought a stake in a Slovakian firm in a bid to beef up its sales in eastern Europe, it said Thursday.The steelmaker and its affiliate Daewoo International Corp. signed a deal this week to buy a combined 10 percent of Trancerie Emiliane (TE) Slovakia, an affiliate of the Italy-based motor core manufacturer TE Group.POSCO did not reveal financial terms of the deal.“This is the milestone of POSCO and TE, which have been forging ties

Korea’s shipbuilders continued to lead the global market in the first half of the year despite a large drop in overseas orders caused by sluggish economic conditions, the government said Thursday.In the January-June period, the world’s total orders for new ships plunged 58 percent from the same period a year earlier to 8.77 million compensated gross tons, a drop largely caused by “years of oversupply and the European financial woes,” the Ministry of Knowledge Economy said in a press release.Kore

Hyundai Glovis Co., a local logistics service provider, signed a deal with U.S. defense contractor Boeing Co. on Thursday to help maintain the operational readiness of South Korea’s F-15K multirole fighters.The performance-based logistics program calls for Hyundai Glovis to manage inventories of parts and components used by the planes and ensure timely delivery to military maintenance personnel so they can be kept combat ready.Under the arrangement, Hyundai Glovis will receive payments for servi

The nation’s antitrust watchdog said Thursday that it fined Lotte PS Net, an automated teller machine operator of Lotte Group, 649 million won ($569,000) for offering favors to its sister company Lotte Aluminum. According to the Fair Trade Commission, Lotte PS Net used to purchase ATMs directly from local manufacturer NeoICP.However, from 2009, the company started purchasing the same NeoICP machines at higher prices through Lotte Aluminum, with the aim of providing commission to then-financially

Japanese vehicles to be assembled in Korea for first timeRenault-Nissan Alliance chairman & CEO Carlos Ghosn will make public the auto giant’s strategy to roll out Nissan models at Renault’s Korean unit at a news conference, slated for Friday, sources in Seoul said on Thursday.This will mark the first time that Seoul-based Renault Samsung Motors, whose parent group is Paris-based Renault, takes on production of Japan-based Nissan cars.“Apart from Renault Samsung, no Japanese car model has been p

HONG KONG (Yonhap News) ― SK Hynix Inc., the world’s second-largest memory chipmaker, will see its earnings restrained by weakening prices of dynamic random-access memory used in manufacturing PCs, a report said Thursday.Macquarie said in the report that it is downgrading its rating on SK hynix by one notch to “neutral” from “buy,” saying the company’s operating profit will be affected by the delayed recovery of the PC DRAM market. It also slashed its target price for the South Korean firm to 21

Korean listed firms sharply reduced their cash dividends paid out to their shareholders this year as growing economic uncertainties have led them to secure capital amid a dim earnings outlook, data showed Thursday. The combined interim cash dividends of six local listed firms that logged their dividend payouts in the regulatory filings stood at 118.4 billion won ($103.6 million) as of June 19, down 57.2 percent from 276.4 billion won a year ago, according to the data compiled by financial inform

Korea’s economic growth rate could drop to the 1-percent range this year if worsening external market conditions make a dent in its exports, a report indicated Thursday.Bank of America Merrill Lynch forecast that Asia’s fourth-largest economy could expand 1.8 percent this year, according to the report compiled by the Korea Center for International Finance. This is much lower than the government’s estimate of 3.3 percent and the Bank of Korea’s 3 percent growth projections. The government and the

Korean stocks closed 1.56 percent higher Thursday as signs of recovery in the U.S. housing market prompted investors to snap up shares following a sharp fall in the previous session, analysts said. The local currency climbed against the U.S. dollar.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index jumped 28.05 points to 1,822.96, rebounding from a 1.48 percent decline on Wednesday. Trading volume was moderate at 482.3 million shares worth 4.6 trillion won ($4 billion), with gainers outnumbering de