On SK Telecom’s key decision of spinning off a new investment company, market watchers have painted a rosy outlook for South Korea’s top wireless carrier on Thursday. “The spinoff plan will boost (SK Telecom’s) corporate value. Under the spinoff to a telecom-focused investment holding firm with stable cash flow and dividends, its affiliated companies that were undervalued will likely be reevaluated,” said Ahn Jae-min, an analyst at NH Investment & Securities.

Koramco REITs & Trust said Thursday that it has been selected as the preferred bidder to buy an eco-friendly office building in eastern Seoul through its new blind pool fund. The investment target, East Central Tower, is a 42-story building with six underground floors and 100,422 square meters of gross floor space. The 4-year-old building houses tenants including Samsung Electronics, Samsung Construction & Trading, Samsung Medison and Fila Holdings. The prime office building has empl

South Koreans are experiencing greater economic pain in recent months, largely due to soaring consumer prices and higher unemployment rates amid the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic, data showed Thursday.  The nation’s so-called misery perceptions index, calculated by adding the seasonally adjusted jobless rate to the annual inflation rate, stood at 6.6 in May, sharply up from 4.2 estimated a year earlier. The latest figure marked the highest since May 2011 when it hit 7.1, said Rep. Choo

South Korea's housing market sentiment remained above the benchmark for the second straight month in June amid rising hopes of business improvements, a poll showed Thursday. The Korea Housing Institute said that its housing business sentiment index (HBSI), based on a survey of about 500 construction firms, came to 113 for this month, up 11.8 points from the previous month. A reading above 100 means the number of companies forecasting better business is larger than the number expecting worse ti

South Korea's top economic policymaker said Thursday the government plans to provide support to help around 1,000 auto parts makers transform into key suppliers of next-generation automobiles by 2030. Finance Minister Hong Nam-ki said the country plans to create a 500-billion won (US$448 million) fund to support research and development and facility investment in the next-generation vehicle sector. "It is very necessary to take the lead in the next-generation vehicle and related parts mar

South Korean banks' household loans decelerated in May, mainly due to a sharp decline in non-mortgage loans, central bank data showed Thursday. The aggregate outstanding bank loans to local households came to 1,024.1 trillion won ($917.2 billion) as of end-May, down 1.6 trillion won from the previous month, according to the data from the Bank of Korea (BOK). The BOK said the slight decline in bank lending was mainly attributable to repayments of loans by customers after the initial public offe

South Korea's central bank said Thursday it will make efforts to achieve its inflation target of 2 percent for this year in the medium term, as it hinted an exit from record-low interest rates amid signs of a strong recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. In a regular monetary report, however, the Bank of Korea (BOK) said it will maintain the current easing of monetary policy "for the time being" to support an economy recovery. "Monetary policy will stay accommodative for the time

Bond issuance in South Korea shrank 11.5 percent in May from the previous month amid strong foreign buying, data showed Thursday. The value of bonds sold in Asia's fourth-largest economy came to 73.3 trillion won ($65.7 billion) last month, down 9.6 trillion won from a month earlier, according to the data from the Korea Financial Investment Association. Last month's drop represents a drastic turnaround from an on-month increase of 9.3 trillion won in April. Sales of corporate bonds plunged by

Major South Korean lender Hana Bank said Thursday it has floated $600 million worth of environment, social and governance (ESG) bonds to help support vulnerable and eco-friendly projects. The dollar-denominated bonds will mature in five years and six months, and carry an annual interest rate of 1.25 percent, or the yield on five-year US Treasurys plus a spread of 0.55 percentage point. ESG bonds are a type of sustainability debt offering aimed at financing corporate activities in environmental

South Korean stocks opened nearly flat Thursday as investors await the release of US consumer price data that may give clues about the Federal Reserve's future monetary policy. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (Kospi) edged down 0.5 points, or 0.02 percent, to reach 3,215.68 points in the first 15 minutes of trading. The Kospi got off to muted start as investors take a wait-and-see mode before the US consumer price index (CPI) for May that will be published later in the day (Kor

Toss Bank on Wednesday received final approval from the Financial Services Commission to operate as the nation’s third mobile-only bank. Now that it has the green light, Toss is set to jump into South Korea’s fast-growing online banking market, currently dominated by KakaoBank and K bank. Toss Bank -- backed by Viva Republica, the operator of fintech app Toss -- will officially launch as early as September. Toss Bank will operate within the existing Toss app to take advantage of

The recovery of South Korea’s job market picked up steam as more than 600,000 positions were added back to the economy in May, surpassing that mark for the second consecutive month, government data showed Wednesday. Statistics Korea found that the number of employed people reached 27.6 million last month, 619,000 more than a year earlier, as Asia’s fourth-largest economy continued its recovery from the virus-caused downturn. The base effect from severe job losses last year lifted

South Korean stocks retreated for second straight day on Wednesday as investors took to the sidelines ahead of the release of US consumer price data that may give more clues about the Federal Reserve's next move. The Korean won fell against the US dollar. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) declined 31.65 points, or 0.97 percent, to close at 3,216.18 points. Trading volume was moderate at about 1.9 billion shares worth some 16.9 trillion won ($15.2 billion), with losers out

Asia’s 4th-largest economy sees faster-than-expected growth in Q1, after contracting 0.9% last year

South Korea’s only exchange-traded fund that focuses on global luxury goods stocks has outperformed Korea‘s benchmark index for the Korea Exchange’s main board Kospi over the course of 13 months since its launch, data showed Wednesday. The product, NH-Amundi Hanaro Global Luxury S&P ETF, has gained 78.1 percent since its launch on May 12 last year through Tuesday, beating the Kospi which gained 67.8 percent during the same period, according to data from NH-Amundi Asset Ma