South Korean stocks opened higher Tuesday as investor sentiment improved over optimism for strong corporate earnings. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) rose 23.62 points, or 0.73 percent, to 3,248.57 points in the first 15 minutes of trading. Stocks rebounded after the KOSPI closed down nearly 1 percent the previous session on market jitters about China's clampdown on education tech firms and its property market. Local large caps of various sectors continued to report

South Korea's economy grew at a solid pace in the second quarter and is on track for a 4 percent expansion this year estimated by the central bank thanks to a strong recovery of domestic demand and robust exports, the Bank of Korea (BOK) said Tuesday. Gross domestic product increased 0.7 percent on-quarter in the April-June period, after a 1.7 percent expansion in the first quarter. The nation's economy grew 5.9 percent on an annual basis, marking the fastest expansion in a decade. The gro

Singapore’s GIC could take up 30% in the Korean unit

South Korean stocks retreated nearly 1 percent Monday as investors remain cautious about the local resurgence of the new coronavirus and uncertainties from China's clampdown on tech firms. The Korean won fell against the US dollar. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (Kospi) fell 29.47 points, or 0.91 percent, to close at 3,224.95 points. Trading volume was moderate at about 813 million shares worth some 12 trillion won ($10.4 billion), with losers outnumbering gainers 662 to 212.

Krafton, the South Korean game maker behind global smash hit PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, said Monday that it looks to expand its foothold in the global market through its market debut on the nation’s main board Kospi early next month. “Our goal is to attain a leadership position preemptively in high-growth emerging markets such as India and the Middle East. Krafton’s strategy (for the goal) is expanding content to nongaming media and platforms by utilizing our intelle

Crowdfunding platform Wadiz said Monday it has completed a organization overhaul by spliting the company into two entities in charge of financial and non-financial businesses to transform itself into a platform directly linking consumers and startups, both online and offline. Following the revamp, the parent company Wadiz Co Ltd. will be in charge of non-financial business while the subsidiary companies Wadiz Finance and Wadiz Partners will lead the financial business, the company said. &ldq

Blockchain has been around for some time now, yet it still remains mysterious to many. Most people assume it is a disruptive technology to the current monetary system. However, in a vastly digitalized world where data is a valuable, fungible resource that brings endless innovations, blockchain tops the list as the game-changing technology. It can revolutionize nearly all industries such as finance, pharmaceuticals, and entertainment. Furthermore, blockchain can transform all company’s val

South Korea said Monday it plans to expand tax incentives for corporate research & development (R&D) and facility investment in semiconductors, batteries and vaccines as it seeks to nurture them as key strategic technologies. The government will provide tax benefits worth 1.16 trillion won ($1 billion) for R&D expenditures and investments in chips, electric vehicle batteries and vaccines under a tax code revision bill. The 2021 tax code revision centers on underpinning a fast econo

Major banking groups here have been posting record earnings for the first half of the year amid ongoing COVID-19 woes, buoyed by lucrative earnings from their brokerages, insurers and card issuers, data released as of Monday showed. So far, four out of five major banking groups here – KB, Woori, Hana and NH – have announced robust net profits for the first six months of the year, eclipsing their stellar performances shown in the same period last year. KB’s net profit for th

South Korea's antitrust regulator said Monday it will fine 24 producers of concrete piles a combined 102 billion won ($88.4 million) for colluding to fix prices of the products used for construction. Samil C&S and 23 others colluded to fix prices of concrete piles and slash production between April 2008 and January 2017 in a bid to stem price falls and maintain inventory levels, according to the Korea Fair Trade Commission. Concrete piles are used to buttress the ground when building apart

The daily foreign exchange (FX) trading by banks in South Korea fell 5.1 percent in the second quarter from three months earlier, as transactions declined over cooling volatility, central bank data showed Monday. The daily FX turnover came to an average $57.85 billion in the April-June period, down $3.09 billion from the first quarter, according to the data from the Bank of Korea (BOK). The average daily turnover of foreign exchange spots reached $22.88 billion during the second quarter, down

South Korea said Monday it seeks to provide pandemic emergency funds to most of its citizens next month, but the timing could be flexible depending on the virus situation. The government plans to provide stimulus checks of 11 trillion won ($9.5 billion) to people in the bottom 80 percent income bracket and double-income and one-person households, as the National Assembly approved an extra budget of 34.9 trillion won last week. Parliament endorsed the extra budget larger than the government's p

South Korea's exports of biopharmaceutical products more than doubled in 2020 from a year earlier on the back of the growing demand for pharmaceutical products amid the COVID-19 pandemic, a report showed Monday. Outbound shipments of high-end biopharmaceutical products came to $5.1 billion in 2020, compared with around $2.1 billion tallied the previous year, according to the Korea International Trade Association (KITA). Asia's fourth-largest economy stood in seventh place in terms of exports i

South Korean stocks opened slightly lower Monday as investors remain cautious about the country's resurgence of new coronavirus cases. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (Kospi) fell 2.02 points, or 0.06 percent, to 3,252.4 points in the first 15 minutes of trading. Stocks retreated after a two-day gain, as the spiking cases sapped demand for risky assets. On Friday, the government extended the highest Level 4 quarantine measures in the Seoul metropolitan area for another two wee

South Korea's instant noodle exports touched an all-time high in the first half of the year amid the coronavirus pandemic, data showed Monday. Asia's fourth-largest economy exported $319.68 million worth of instant noodles, or "ramyeon" in Korean, in the January-June period, up 5.8 percent from a year earlier, according to the data from the Korea Customs Service. The amount was above the previous first-half record of $302.08 million set a year earlier. Yet the first-half growth rate