Foreign investors are continuing to snap up Korean stocks, helping the local bourse stage a solid performance in recent sessions on renewed optimism over the eurozone debt problem. According to the Korea Exchange, the net amount of local stocks bought by foreign investors reached 4.3 trillion won ($3.7 billion) this month. The benchmark KOSPI, which closed at 1,825.74 on Dec. 29, ended up at 1,949.89 on Friday. Last week saw particularly strong buying by non-Korean investors on the local stock m

Low stock prices of the financial group could be hurdle for speeding up privatizationPolicymakers will hold their first official meeting of this year at the end of this month to revitalize the government’s stalled project to privatize Woori Financial Group.Newly formed members of the Public Fund Oversight Committee are scheduled to have a workshop on the state-controlled Woori Financial sale plan this month, according to government officials.The six members of the PFOC, under the wing of the Fi

CEO discusses 2012 strategy, cross trading with Japanese exchange,corporate reforms and CSRKorea Exchange will accelerate its expansion into overseas markets this year, providing stock market solutions to strategic partners in Asia and elsewhere, its chief said. “Korea Exchange has formed solid partnerships with Southeast Asian countries by offering its market solutions, and is already making progress in central Asia, as well,” Kim Bong-soo, chairman and CEO of the KRX, told The Korea Herald. “

Korea’s finance minister urged the business community Thursday to ramp up its investment and hiring this year in order to help the nation’s economy tide over toughening economic conditions at home and abroad.In a meeting with heads of major business lobby groups in central Seoul, Bahk Jae-wan promised that the government will continue its efforts to improve the overall business environment by streamlining red tape deemed to be unnecessarily hampering activities in the corporate sector. “When the

Korea’s imports of crude oil from Iran plunged in December amid growing demand from the U.S. to toughen sanctions on Tehran over its suspected nuclear weapons program, customs data showed Wednesday.Korea bought about 639,000 tons of Iranian oil in December, down 46.5 percent from a month earlier, according to the data by the Korea Customs Service. The amount is down 16.7 percent from the same month a year earlier.The December figure was the lowest level since October 2010, when Seoul imported 52