South Korea's finance minister expressed concern that the rollback of stimulus measures by advanced countries could have a negative ripple effect on theglobal economy, his office said Saturday.The concerns were raised by Finance Minister Hyun Oh-seok during talks with his Chinese counterpart Lou Jiwei that were held before the start of the group of 20 meeting here in Moscow, Russia. Hyun emphasized the need for global cooperation to effectively cope with the negative ripple effect and Lou shared

Global finance chiefs must work together to make sure the end of Federal Reserve bond buying does not weaken economic recovery in other nations, South Korean Finance Minister Hyun Oh-seok said.The Group of 20 needs to coordinate how to handle scaled- back monetary stimulus from the U.S. once its recovery is secure, Hyun said in an interview in Moscow. If not handled carefully, a Fed move away from quantitative easing threatens to slow growth in other nations, which in turn would damp U.S. expans

South Korean stocks closed 0.22 percent lower Friday as investors sat on the sidelines due to jitters over the listed firms' second quarter earnings, analysts said. The local currency gained against the U.S. dollar.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) fell 4.07 points to close at 1,871.41. Trading volume was moderate at 315 million shares worth 3.54 trillion won (US$3.16 billion), with gainers outpacing losers 418 to 378."Seoul shares traded flat despite that the U.S. stock ma

South Korean stocks traded 0.15 percent lower late Friday morning, led by losses in techs and builders, analysts said. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) slipped 2.88 points to 1,872.60 as of 11:20 a.m.Market behemoth Samsung Electronics lost 1.39 percent, and top chipmaker SK hynix shed 1.37 percent. Top flat panel maker LG Display moved down 0.19 percent.Builders also traded bearish, with Hyundai Engineering & Construction losing 2.11 percent and Daewoo Engineering & Const

South Korean stocks opened slightly higher Friday, buoyed by overnight gains on Wall Street on the improved U.S. jobs data, analysts said.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) gained 1.49 points, or 0.08 percent, to 1,876.97 in the first 15 minutes of trading. Carmakers traded higher, with No. 1 Hyundai Motor rising 0.9 percent and its auto parts affiliate Hyundai Mobis adding 0.97 percent. Top shipbuilder Hyundai Heavy Industries gained 0.51 percent.In contrast, tech shares tr

Some lenders highlight marked fall in overall earnings

The proportion of young Koreans in their teens and 20s currently working dropped to the lowest level in about a decade, Statistics Korea data showed Thursday.The so-called economic participation rate for those aged between 15 and 29 stood at 43.3 percent as of May 2013, down from 44.7 percent a year earlier.The figure is the lowest since the government agency started producing data on the rate in 2005. The labor force participation ratio is based on a nationwide census every May.The figure, whic

LG Uplus Corp., the country’s smallest mobile carrier, introduced its next-generation mobile network on Thursday, offering speeds twice as fast as the existing long-term evolution network.This move by LG Uplus came as its bigger local rival SK Telecom Co. unveiled here last month the world’s first LTE-Advanced network service.With the use of the LTE-Advanced network, an 800 megabyte file takes some 40 seconds to download, compared with 80 seconds with the existing LTE service, it said.The LTE-Ad

The number of people starting their own business last year dropped for the first time in three years amid toughened economic and business environment, data showed Thursday.According to the data by the National Tax Service, people who launched their own business last year totaled 956,406, down 3.8 percent from 994,386 tallied a year earlier. This marked the first time in three years that the number of newly launched businesses has declined on a year-on-year basis.In the retail sector, the number

The nation’s main bourse on Thursday issued a warning to Hanyang Securities for engaging in irregular trading of financial derivatives products.The brokerage unit of Hanyang University sought to hamper other investors’ profits through the trading of KOSPI200 option products by issuing an excessive amount of “sell” orders at a certain price, according to the Korea Exchange.Exchange officials said the biggest victims in the aftermath of the firms’ practice were small investors. As Hanyang took a l

South Korean stocks declined 0.64 percent Thursday on a foreign selling as U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said a tapering of the monetary easing will come in due time, analysts said. The local currency fell against the U.S. dollar. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) fell 12.01 points to close at 1,875.48. Trading volume was moderate at 374.9 million shares worth 3.42 trillion won (US$3.05 billion), with losers outstripping gainers 463 to 317. "Bernanke's remarks

South Korean stocks got off to a weak start Thursday, led by a selling binge by foreign investors in large-cap shares, analysts said. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) fell 10.39 points, or 0.55 percent, to 1,877.10 in the first 15 minutes of trading. Foreigners sold more than 44.2 billion won (US$39.4 million) worth of local equities as of 9:15 a.m. Blue-chip stocks lost ground, with Samsung Electronics shedding 0.8 percent and steelmaker POSCO losing nearly 1 percent. Maj

South Korea’s financial regulators will have reinforced authority in investigating fraudulent stock trading, becoming closer to the surveillance systems used in the United States and Britain.The Financial Services Commission of Korea is poised to set up the “investigation division,” which will be in charge of fast-track scrutiny of alleged stock manipulation, said regulatory officials on Wednesday.“The authority comes from a close benchmarking of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and t

The daily volatility of the South Korean currency rose to the highest level in 16 months in the second quarter on fear that the U.S. may taper its monetary easing, the central bank said Wednesday. The average daily volatility of the local currency reached 6.6 won in the April-June period, wider than 5.4 won in the previous quarter, according to the Bank of Korea. The second-quarter data marked the highest volatility since 9.3 won in the fourth quarter of 2011, it added. The on-day currency volat