South Korean stocks opened lower Wednesday as investors awaited the results of the US Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting, The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) fell 6.05 points, or 0.19 percent, to 3,209.37 points in the first 15 minutes of trading. The KOSPI traded bearish as the yield rate of the US 10-year Treasury bounced back above the 1.6 percent level amid expectations of faster-than-expected global recovery from the pandemic. Tech shares slumped, while insu

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) on Wednesday revised up its growth outlook for the South Korean economy this year, citing robust exports of chips and the country's fiscal and monetary support. The Manila-based bank expected Asia's fourth-largest economy to grow 3.5 percent this year, up from its earlier estimate in December last year of 3.3 percent. The ADB forecast predicted the Korean economy to grow 3.1 percent for next year. The bank's outlook is higher than the growth estimates by the Ba

South Korea's consumer sentiment increased for a fourth consecutive month in April, as exports showed signs of a strong recovery and health authorities vowed to speed up the COVID-19 vaccine rollout, central bank data showed Wednesday. The composite consumer sentiment index (CCSI) came in at 102.2 for April, up 1.7 points from the previous month, according to the data from the Bank of Korea (BOK). A reading above 100 means optimists outnumber pessimists. The latest reading marks the fourth on

South Korea will levy taxes on capital gains from cryptocurrencies next year as scheduled despite growing calls by investors to postpone the taxation, the finance minister said Tuesday. The government plans to impose a 20 percent tax on capital gains from transactions of virtual assets starting next year. Amid a bull run, investors of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have cried foul over the plan, claiming that authorities should apply the same taxation standards as those imposed on stock

Hyundai LNG Shipping on Tuesday signed a 20-year contract to hire up to six liquefied natural gas carriers owned by Malaysia-based Petronas LNG starting in 2024, amid a global race to achieve economies of scale in the wet bulk shipping industry.　 The deal, which involves 174,000-cubic-meter LNG vessels, could be the largest in South Korea’s history in terms of cargo capacity, said IMM Private Equity, which controls the shipping agent dedicated to LNG carriers. The vessels will

Standard Chartered Bank Korea said Tuesday it signed an agreement with a city-funded women rights organization to nurture young talent and foster the development of the tech-driven financial services sector. Under the memorandum of understanding, the bank and Seoul Foundation of Women and Family will jointly run an incubator program dubbed Women in FinTech Academy, which is to target young women who aspire to launch fintech startups. The program is expected to increase women’s stake in

South Korean stocks edged down Tuesday amid increased valuation pressure, with investors taking to the sidelines ahead of a meeting of the US Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC). The Korean won rose against the US dollar. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) slipped 2.11 points, or 0.07 percent, to close at 3,215.42 points. Trading volume was moderate at about 1.5 billion shares worth some 16.8 trillion won ($15.1 billion), with gainers outnumbering losers 437 to 417. Fore

The country’s startups attracted a record amount of investment in the first quarter, data from the Ministry of SMEs and Startups showed Tuesday. During the first three months of the year, the country’s venture investments jumped 61 percent from the same period last year to a record high of 1.24 trillion won ($1.18 billion). Some 989 venture capital rounds at 558 startups were closed during the first three months in the country, the best performance recorded since 2000. Of the tota

Local credit card issuer Shinhan Card will seek to create a new office culture by removing titles of executives and employees and having them all call each other by their names. Under the new office rule, Shinhan employees, for example, will call the company CEO Lim Young-jin as “Young-jin-nim,” not “daepyo-nim,” the typical honorific for a CEO. The scheme is part of the card company’s efforts to adapt to the fast-changing business environment, and to build an

Seoul Main Customs, the regional office of South Korea’s customs agency, said Tuesday that it discovered apartment purchases in Seoul by foreign nationals who used illicit funds or failed to report their purchases to authorities. Through investigations into their foreign exchange transactions, bank accounts and searches and seizures, 55 apartments were found to be involved in illegal purchases, worth about 84 billion won ($75.5 million) combined, the customs office said. The probe was car

Talk in political circles favors the legal acceptance of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, despite the government’s skepticism over digital assets.  Rep. Kim Byung-wook of the ruling Democratic Party is working on a proposed legal framework that would embrace the trading of digital assets and regulate cryptocurrency markets. It has gained momentum largely due to the ample liquidity driven by the government’s monetary easing stance amid the COVID-19 pandemic, according to indu

South Korea’s economy expanded 1.6 percent on-quarter in the first three months of the year, signaling a faster-than-expected recovery to pre-COVID-19 levels, central bank data showed Tuesday. Bolstered by improvement in private consumption and exports, “the 1.6 percent growth in the first quarter has pushed the real gross domestic product level higher than that of the last three months of 2019,” Park Yang-su, head of the economic statistics department at the Bank of Korea, sa

The number of South Koreans in the agro-fishery sector declined 9.5 percent last year from five years earlier amid rapid aging and younger people's movements to cities, data showed Tuesday. The number of people engaged in the farming and fishery segments totaled 2.64 million last year, compared with 2.92 million in 2015, according to the data from Statistics Korea. The number of households in the agro-fishery sector came to 1.18 million last year, down 4.5 percent from five years earlier. The

South Korea's investment in startups spiked nearly 61 percent in the first quarter of the year amid hopes of high returns, government data showed Tuesday. A total of 1.25 trillion won ($1.12 billion) was invested in promising venture firms and startups in the January-March period, up 61.1 percent from a year earlier, according to the data from the Ministry of SMEs and Startups. It was the highest amount for the first quarter and the second-largest quarterly figure after the 1.41 trillion won f

South Korea's demand for natural gas is expected to rise 15 percent through 2034, data showed Tuesday, on the back of higher demand from hydrogen fuel cell cars and liquefied natural gas (LNG) bunkering ships. The country's annual demand for natural gas is expected to reach 47.9 million tons in 2034, compared with 41.7 million tons estimated for this year, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. Of the volume, the demand from the industrial segment is especially anticipated to