Seoul stocks plunged to a two-month low on Friday as foreigners continued their selling spree and an interest rate freeze stoked investor jitters, analysts said.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index sank 31.31 points, or 1.56 percent, to 1,977.19, extending a losing streak to a fourth session. The benchmark index fell below the 2,000-point level for the first time this year, sinking to i

South Korea's central bank left the key interest rate unchanged on Friday in a bid to gauge the effect of a surprise rate hike made last month despite concerns about inflation.   Bank of Korea (BOK) Gov. Kim Choong-soo and his fellow policymakers froze the benchmark seven-day repo rate, dubbed the base rate, at 2.75 percent.   Last month, the BOK unexpectedly hiked the borrowing costs by a quarter

Korea and the U.S. have signed their recently concluded free trade  agreement, paving the way for the pending pact to be ratified in both countries, Seoul‘s trade ministry said Thursday.In December last year, both countries reached a final agreement focusing on U.S. demands that South Korea soften its automotive safety and environmental standards.The Korea-U.S. free trade agreement, known as the K

Asiana Airlines, the country’s No. 2 air carrier, reported record high yearly sales of over 5 trillion won ($4.51 billion) in 2010, buoyed by the rising demand for flights, its officials said Thursday.The company said that it reached 5.07 trillion won in sales, an increase of over 30 percent from 2009, and 635.7 billion won in operating profit last year. Both figures are the highest the company ha

Google-made mobile platform spices up competition against Apple’s iPhoneThe number of people who own an Android-powered smartphone has reached 5 million since it was launched in the local market a year ago.Of the people who own smartphones running on the Android mobile operating system, SK Telecom had the highest number of subscribers ― 3.72 million. It was followed by KT Corp., the exclusive serv

Currency appreciation would improve supply of imports, reduce currency volatility, economists sayA stronger won could help tame the country’s inflationary pressure, as a tool to ease the burden of surging import prices, economists said Thursday.Although tolerating a more expensive won would hurt exporters, the move will ease some supply shortage, they said. They predicted that further appreciation

Korea National Oil Corp., a state-run energy resources developer, plans to invest as much as $4 billion in overseas oilfields this year as it aims to increase crude production by 33 percent.“We’re interested in assets in Africa, Europe, Asia, the U.S. and Canada,” Kim Seong Hoon, senior executive vice president, said in an interview. “We plan to raise daily output by 60,000 barrels to 240,000 barr