South Korean stocks opened lower Tuesday as foreign and institutional investors sought to cash in profits after the key stock index hit its all-time high the previous session. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index lost 12.9 points, or 0.4 percent, to 3,196.09 points in the first 15 minutes of trading. Samsung Electronics shed 1.01 percent, and No. 2 chipmaker SK hynix retreated 2.59 percent. Leading chemical firm LG Chem fell 0.61 percent, while rechargeable battery maker Samsung SD

Foreigners' building transactions in South Korea reached an all-time high in 2020, with deals soaring in the Seoul metropolitan area, data showed Tuesday. Foreigners' transactions of housing and commercial buildings in Asia's fourth-largest economy came to 21,048 last year, up 18.5 percent from a year earlier, according to the data from the Korea Real Estate Board. It marked the first time that the number of foreign property transactions exceeded the 20,000 mark. It was also the largest annua

The South Korean economy's performance was the worst in over two decades last year, bearing the brunt of the pandemic, but it appears to have gotten back on a growth track on the back of a mild recovery in exports, according to the central bank Tuesday. The country's gross domestic product (GDP) shrank 1 percent in 2020 from a year earlier, according to advance data from the Bank of Korea (BOK). The figure marks the worst on-year growth since 1998, when the nation's economy contracted 5.1 perc

Finance Ministry caught in a political crossfire

Despite the South Korean government’s relentless efforts to curb soaring apartment prices, there seems to be no sign of demand letting up in Seoul and its surrounding cities, according to the Korea Appraisal Board on Monday. The state-run property appraisal agency’s recent report showed the home-buying sentiment stood at 117.2, a record high since the relevant data started compilation in July 2012. The index, based on a survey of the organization’s member realtors and analysi

South Korean stocks surpassed the 3,200-point threshold to finish at an all-time high Monday, with a flurry of big-name firms set to report their fourth-quarter earnings. The Korean won rose against the US dollar. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) jumped 68.36 points, or 2.18 percent, to close at 3,208.99 points. The index hit an intraday high of 3,212.22 points. Trading volume was high at about 1 billion shares worth some 20.8 trillion won ($18.9 billion), with gainers o

Kakao Bank, South Korea’s leading Internet-only bank, said on Monday that it is hiring more than 100 employees in its push to ramp up digital innovation.  The lender said it plans to hire experienced talent in eight areas -- financial IT development, risk management, business development, service plan, compliance, audit, and customer services -- in the first half of the year. After the latest talent hunting, the company’s headcount, which currently stands at 937, will exceed 1

South Korean media content-related stocks have soared at a fast clip, backed by rising demand for streaming services and growing expectations for the local entertainment industry to strengthen its global foothold, data showed Monday. Studio Dragon, a major local TV drama production firm, saw its shares climb 17.17 percent this year, from 92,600 won ($83.85) marked at the closing of Dec. 30 to 108,500 won touched at Monday’s closing. The stock hit its second-highest closing of 109,200 won

South Korea’s market watchdog Financial Supervisory Service is slated to order local banks that sold the problematic funds structured by Lime Asset Management to compensate investors who were victims in the massive fraud, officials said Monday. Lime Asset has been under an FSS probe since July 2019 for having concealed huge losses and inflated investment returns to keep its customer base. It suspended fund redemption worth an estimated 1.6 trillion won ($1.4 billion). The dispute arbit

The number of counterfeit South Korean banknotes fell to a record low in 2020, the Bank of Korea (BOK) said Monday, as the coronavirus pandemic caused a decline in cash usage. Last year, the number of fake banknotes found in South Korea came to 272, down 6.8 percent from a year earlier and marking the lowest since the BOK began releasing such data in 1998. The decline was mainly due to a "drop in in-person cash usage as COVID-19 spreads," the BOK said. By denomination, 5,000-won cou

South Korean stocks opened higher Monday on strong individual buying ahead of the fourth-quarter corporate earnings season this week and hopes for vaccines against the new coronavirus. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index added 15.05 points, or 0.48 percent, to 3,155.68 points in the first 15 minutes of trading. Airline, chemical and bio large caps did well, while auto and insurance shares traded bearish. Top cap Samsung Electronics rose 0.23 percent, and No. 2 chipmaker SK hynix a

South Korean exports of red pepper paste jumped more than 35 percent in 2020 from a year earlier thanks to the global popularity of Korean pop culture, known as the Korean Wave, data showed Monday. Overseas shipments of red pepper paste, called "gochujang" in Korean, came to $50.93 million last year, up 35.2 percent from a year earlier, according to the data by the Korea Agro-Fisheries & Food Trade Corp. South Korean exports had been on the rise since 2016, when the figure stood

South Korean retail investors' holdings of shares in electric vehicle leader Tesla Motors Inc. soared nearly 32 percent this year to cross the $10 billion mark, data showed Monday. Local individual investors owned $10.33 billion worth of Tesla shares as of Friday, up 31.9 percent from the end of last year, according to the data from the Korea Securities Depository. The figure also represents a 73 times increase from the end of 2019 and South Korean retail investors' most-bought issue among for

Contactless services have also gone mainstream in the second-hand car market with used car dealers increasingly adopting mobile technology to offer credible information on used cars. Joining in on the trend, auto financing firm Hyundai Capital launched an artificial intelligence-powered mobile platform in September last year, which helps consumers avoid low-quality used cars -- often called lemons and picked peaches -- in their recommendations. The used car mobile platform, named Check, has

Kim Dong-hwan, the founder of a market and economic YouTube show “Three Pros” had never imagined that his channel would have 1 million subscribers, a tenfold increase, just within a year. “Three Pros: With Economic God” provides daily market updates and analysis of industries and economy and is hosted by three “pros” in the field: Kim, Lee Jin-woo and Jung Young-jin. The channel has recorded more than 200 million views so far and attracts as many as 60,000