[THE INVESTOR] Local brokerages were reticent to issue sell opinions on stocks that were broadly short-sold, according to industry data on July 8. Of the top 20 stocks that were short-sold based on July 8 disclosures, more than 70 percent of securities firms here issued a buy opinion over the past three months.A total of 35 brokerages had issued neutral opinions, with just one having a sell opinion. Short-selling is essentially betting that a stock’s market value will decline. Investors sell sha

2Q16 operating profit to meet consensus at W591bnMC division to narrow losses based on efficient operations ¨ Fundamentals to improve on ramp-up of EV parts business ¨ Retain BUY for a target price of W77,000LG Electronics is projected to have posted 2Q16 operating profit of W591bn (+17% QoQ, +142.3% YoY) on sales of W14.42tr (+7.9% QoQ, +3.5% YoY), meeting the consensus (W597bn). The figure is expected to have missed our previous projection (W626bn) with the G5 recording sluggish sales and LG I

LINE’s IPO is fast approaching. Noting the recent increase in LINE’s IPO price band to JPY2,900~3,300, it appears that the LINE book building process garnered a positive response.2Q16 results to confirm domestic portal growth Our predictions place NAVER’s consolidated 2Q16 sales at W992.5bn (up 27.1% y-y, up 5.9% q-q) and operating profit at W261.6bn (up 56.5% y-y, up 1.9% q-q), with operating profit likely meeting consensus of W266.4bn.NAVER’s 2Q16 domestic advertising sales (which rallied 21.2

[THE INVESTOR] South Korea’s issuance of derivatives-linked securities has soared to a record level during the first half of the year as the upward trend in oil and gold prices continues, data showed on July 8. A total of 14 trillion won (US$12 billion) worth of derivatives-tied securities has been sold during the January to June period, up 3.3 percent year-on-year, according to data compiled by the Korea Securities Depository.It is the highest half-year figure so far. “Strengthening internation