South Korea's anti-trust regulator said Tuesday that it has placed 10 additional companies on its watch list that limits mutual business investments and loan guarantees.   The Fair Trade Commission (FTC) said a total of 1,360 affiliates from 51 conglomerates, including Samsung, LG and Hyundai Heavy Industries were on its list as of Tuesday.    The FTC said 33 firms were included as affiliates of

   South Korea's trade surplus narrowed sharply in January from the previous month as soaring crude and commodity costs overshadowed record exports, a government report showed Tuesday.   The country's surplus reached $2.96 billion last month, compared with $4.08 billion in December, with exports surging 46 percent to $44.89 billion and imports gaining 32.9 percent to$41.93 billion, according to th

  South Korea's consumer prices spiked in January mainly due to a rise in agricultural and energy-related product costs, adding to concerns that mounting inflationary pressure could undercut the nation's economic recovery, a government report showed Tuesday.   According to the report by Statistics Korea, the country's consumer price index surged 4.1 percent last month from a year earlier. The figu

Korean businesses and investors in Egypt are facing inevitable damage to their operations due to increasingly violent protests there, with many of them forced to stay indoors or have their family members leave the country in a hurry, a local trade body said Monday.Many companies, including Samsung, LG and Hyundai Motor, have decided to immediately bring home the families of their workers in the Ar

Korea’s smallest mobile carrier, LG Uplus Corp. said Monday that it swung into the red in the fourth quarter of 2010 from one year ago, hurt by depreciation costs. Net loss stood at 49.2 billion won ($44.1 million) in the October-December period, compared with a 78.4 billion won net income a year earlier, the company said in a regulatory filing. The mobile operator said it had lost money in the th

The antitrust regulator is investigating Korean Air and Mongolian Airlines for possible price fixing for their services between Incheon and Ulaanbaatar, sources said Wednesday.Since October, the Fair Trade Commission has been looking into their ticket prices which are about 30 percent higher than those on routes of a similar distance, they said.Only the two airliners have been running the service

About 20 large businesses will face hefty fines for mistreating their suppliers over the next six months, Fair Trade Commission Chairman Kim Dong-soo said.The antitrust regulator has been conducting an extensive inquiry into 40 large companies since last year. In a media interview, he said about half of them were found to have been involved in wrongdoings including unfair pricing and arbitrary can

The government is looking to China and other cash-rich emerging countries to invest in Korea’s fast-growing energy, technology and service sectors.The Ministry of Knowledge Economy said Monday that Korea aims to draw more than $15 billion in foreign direct investment this year. It marks a 15 percent increase from a record-high $13 billion that arrived last year.To achieve the goal, the government

Individually tailored equity portfolios may double in Korea this year as investors shift cash from index-tracking mutual funds, advisory firm Korea Creative Investment said. Brokerages sold $1.2 billion of products to individual investors based on Korea Creative’s stock picks within a month of the company starting business Dec. 13, Seo Jae-hyeong, chief executive officer of the Seoul-based firm, s

Korea Electric Power Corp., the country’s biggest electricity producer, posted a narrower fourth-quarter loss after the government allowed power prices to increase for the first time in more than a year and a stronger won cut the cost of its foreign-currency loans.The loss shrank to 18.2 billion won ($16.2 million) in the three months ended Dec. 31 from a deficit of 336.4 billion won a year earlie