South Korean stocks closed lower Friday as investors sat on the sidelines ahead of monetary policy meetings of the U.S. and Japan later this month, analysts said. The Korean won closed higher against the greenback.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) gained 12.84 points, or 0.66 percent, to 1,944.48. Trading volume was low at 252.7 million shares worth 3.13 trillion won ($2.95 billion), with losers outpacing gainers 428 to 347.Analysts said Seoul shares lost ground as investor

South Korean brokerage houses, hit by a decline in stock turnover and a bearish run on the local stock market, have been trading near yearly lows, but going against the investor crowd may hold true for the ugly duckling shares, analysts said Friday.Shares of major brokerage houses led by Samsung Securities and Woori Investment Securities have been on a downhill road with the a subindex gauging the sector’s share prices dropping more than 17 percent since the end of 2012, as investors bet that th

South Korea's international airline traffic rose to a new record high in 2013, the government said Friday, reflecting a surge in the number of passengers to and from the country.The total number of international flights to and from the country came to 380,744 last year, up 6.6 percent from 357,276 in 2012, according to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport.The country's overall airline traffic also reached a record high of some 585,000 flights last year as domestic air traffic rose

South Korea will greatly increase the number of safety tests this year on fishery products sold here, including for radiation, the government said Thursday.According to the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries, the government plans to conduct 7,200 safety checks, 18 percent more than in 2013. Tests for antibiotic residues and prohibited drugs will increase the most, to over 5,700, it said.The number of tests for radiation will increase from 811 last year to 911, according to the ministry.A widesprea

South Korea's exports of industrial parts surged to a record high last year as did the sector's trade surplus, the government said Thursday.In 2013, outbound shipments of industrial parts and materials reached $263.1 billion, up 3.8 percent from a year earlier, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. The amount accounts for over 47 percent of the country's total exports in 2013, which came to $559.6 billion.Imports gained 1.9 percent on-year to $165.5 billion.The trade surplus i

The Korea Exchange (KRX), the country’s stock market operator, said Wednesday that it aims to run the country’s first carbon trading market starting in 2015 with some 500 firms expected to join.The KRX, designated as the sole operator of the carbon trading market, will adopt systems for emissions trading that are similar to the current stock market trading schemes. The regular trading hours will run from 10 a.m. to noon, the bourse operator said.The country has been joining efforts to reduce gre

The weakness of the Japanese yen led to a decrease in the number of Japanese tourists visiting South Korea in the first 11 months of last year, data showed Wednesday.In the January-November period of 2013, 2.53 million Japanese tourists came to South Korea, down 23.1 percent from a year ago, according to Statistics Korea. In June alone, the number of Japanese tourists to South Korea totaled 201,000, down 33.5 percent from the same period a year ago. The sharp fall, especially between April and J

Local builders are coming under increasing pressure as they undergo investigation for suspected bid-rigging amid difficult market conditions, industry sources said Wednesday.Insiders said the Fair Trade Commission is examining all large-scale public construction projects undertaken during the previous Lee Myung-bak administration. The FTC has not confirmed the investigations, but industry sources said at least seven or eight builders are being probed over work related to railway lines in Busan a

The nation’s jobless rate rose in December from a month earlier, but job creation remained strong, raising hopes that labor market conditions might be improving, a government report showed Wednesday.According to the report by Statistics Korea, the jobless rate stood at 3 percent last month, up from 2.7 percent in November. The seasonally adjusted jobless rate also inched up from 2.9 percent to 3 percent.Job creation still remained strong. The number of employed people was 24.96 million in Decemb

South Korea's jobless rate rose in December from a month earlier, but job creation remained strong, raising hopes that labor market conditions might be improving, a government report showed Wednesday.According to the report by Statistics Korea, the jobless rate stood at 3 percent last month, up from 2.7 percent in November. The seasonally adjusted jobless rate also inched up from 2.9 percent to 3 percent.Job creation still remained strong. The number of employed people was 24.96 million in Decem

South Korean stocks closed slightly lower Tuesday as investors were divided over the U.S. Fed’s future moves, as some anticipate that it may accelerate the tapering of quantitative easing, analysts said. The Korean won closed lower against the U.S. dollar.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index shed 2.85 points, or 0.15 percent, to 1,946.07. Trading volume was low at 237.8 million shares worth 3.36 trillion won ($3.18 billion) with losers outpacing gainers 466 to 327.Analysts said Seoul

Korea Resources Corp., the state-run mineral resources explorer and developer, has recently refinanced its debt-ridden Boleo copper-cobalt-zinc project in Mexico in a debt-for-equity swap, the company said in a press release Monday.“The KORES-led Korean consortium agreed to the $938 million deal. The agreement will contribute not only to normalizing the project and but also to halving the firm’s debt ratio to 197 percent,” KORES chief executive Koh Jung-sik said. The consortium, which holds a 90

South Korea logged a record-high trade surplus in 2013 thanks to strong export growth, customs data showed Tuesday.South Korea logged a trade surplus of $44 billion last year. This also marked the fifth consecutive year that the country's trade surplus has topped $25 billion since 2009, according to the data by the Korea Customs Service.Strong exports played a key role in driving the trade surplus.Exports hit a record high of $559.6 billion last year, up 2.1 percent from a year earlier. Imports