South Korean stocks closed 1.88 percent lower on Tuesday as investors had growing skepticism about the effectiveness of a new fiscal treaty for the European Union, analysts said. The local currency fell against the U.S. dollar.The benchmark KOSPI fell 35.7 points to 1,864.06. Trading volume was moderate at 442.9 million shares worth 5.21 trillion won ($4.51 billion) with losers outpacing gainers 613 to 224.“The Seoul market lost ground on concerns that EU summit results may be short of fundament

South Korea’s tax agency said Tuesday that it is investigating 10 mid-sized domestic companies on suspicions they evaded taxes in transferring wealth from owners to their children through funds in tax haven countries.According to the National Tax Service, the companies are suspected of evading taxes in the process of wealth transfer by selling shares of their affiliates at well below their market value to the funds that were created under the children’s names.The companies under investigation in

Samsung Card Co.’s decision to sell a 17 percent stake in its unlisted affiliate Samsung Everland Inc. to KCC Corp. prompted local brokerages to lower their target share prices for the card firm Tuesday, expressing disappointment over the lower-than-expected final transaction value. In a regulatory filing on Monday, Samsung Card said its board gave the green light to a plan to sell 425,000 shares in Samsung Everland, the de facto holding company of Samsung Group, to KCC, a local maker of constru

Public agencies plan to expand graduate hiring by 44 percent next year to help ease youth unemployment and encourage corresponding efforts in the private sector, the Finance Ministry said Tuesday.The ministry said a total of 14,400 new jobs will be created across 285 public agencies next year, up from about 10,000 for this year. It decided to increase jobs set aside for high school graduates from 3.4 percent to 20 percent next year, in a decision to encourage private firms to follow the move.“It

Nearly two out of five married women in South Korea were forced to stop working due to marriage, having children, child education and other family-related obligations, data showed Tuesday.According to the data by Statistics Korea, the number of women who gave up their jobs due to marriage and other family-related reasons came to 1.9 million as of June. That made up 19.3 percent of all married women aged 15-54 here. Of them, 47 percent cited marriage as the major reason why they quit their jobs.

South Korean banks’ short-term overseas borrowing declined in November as Europe‘s debt crisis prompted them to repay foreign debt to brace for the worsening of the turmoil, the financial watchdog said Tuesday.A total of 16 local banks refinanced 95.9 percent of their maturing debt with fresh foreign borrowing last month, down from 108 percent tallied in October, according to the Financial Supervisory Service.A bank’s short-term refinancing rate measures the percentage of its new borrowing again

Korea’s commercial banks recently saw their credit ratings raised while many big foreign banks suffered downgrades by three global rating agencies.According to the Korea Center for International Finance, six Korean banks recently enjoyed upgraded credit ratings or more positive outlooks from the rating firms.In July, Standard & Poor’s raised its rating of Shinhan Bank and Hana Bank by one notch.In November, Fitch Ratings revised its outlook on three state-run banks ― Industrial Bank of Korea, Ex

South Korean stocks closed 1.33 percent higher on Monday as investors were emboldened by hopes that a new EU fiscal treaty may help solve the eurozone debt crisis, analysts said. The local currency fell against the U.S. dollar.The benchmark KOSPI gained 25.01 points to 1,899.76. Trading volume was moderate at 404.2 million shares worth 5.28 trillion won ($4.61 billion) with gainers outpacing losers 515 to 293.“European leaders’ agreement on a new fiscal treaty gave some support to the market, bu

South Korea’s financial watchdog said Monday it will look into whether local mutual cooperative funds followed rules on home loan extension as household debt has been on the rise, led by non-bank institutions.The Financial Supervisory Service said it plans to launch a field inspection into branches of the National Agricultural Cooperative Federation, or Nonghyup, and National Credit Union Federation of Korea in a bid to uncover irregularities related to the extension of household lending.The FSS

The country’s private pension market is on course to expand by about 34 percent this year as more are joining the retirement market in one of the world’s fastest-aging societies, industry sources said Monday.The retirement and personal pension market is forecast to exceed 250 trillion won ($218 billion) by the end of this year, up from 187 trillion won last year, sources said. The flock to the pension market comes as Korea is fast becoming an aged society, as senior citizens aged 65 or older are

Less than half of South Korean exporters predicted their overseas shipments will expand in 2012 amid lingering concerns of global economic slowdown, a survey showed Monday.According to a survey conducted by the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industries, 44.2 percent of 502 exporting companies said next year’s business will exceed figures for this year.The poll also showed 43.8 percent expected exports to remain unchanged from this year, while 12 percent expected a decrease in sales in foreign mar

Worsening external conditions, faltering domestic consumption cloud the outlook furtherWhen an illness spreads too far, few kinds of medicine can bring it back under control.The implication of the newly unveiled economic policy blueprints fits this scenario, unfortunately, as the impact is seen as severely limited, if not altogether ineffective. The Finance Ministry’s set of plans, announced on Monday, are aimed at fighting the stubbornly strong downward pressure on Asia’s fourth-largest economy

South Korean public corporations’ bond sales have nearly doubled in three years as they increasingly resort to debt issuance to help finance state development projects, financial sources said Sunday.The value of outstanding bonds issued by state land developer LH Corp. and other public corporations under the central and provincial governments came to 283 trillion won ($247 billion) as of Friday, according to the sources.The figure is up 89 percent from 150 trillion won at the end of 2008 and amo