Kakao Games, the game developing unit of South Korean mobile giant Kakao, will debut on the tech-heavy Kosdaq market Thursday, the Korea Exchange said Tuesday. The company's public offering price is 24,000 won per share. It logged record-breaking IPO subscription early this month, far outperforming SK Biopharmacueticals, which went public in July. Subscription deposits for Kakao Games shares were estimated at 58.55 trillion won ($49.4 billion), almost double the 30.99 trillion won deposited fo

Fitch Ratings lowered the growth forecast for South Korea this year by 0.2 percentage point due to the fallout of the coronavirus outbreak, the credit appraiser said Tuesday. The downgrade, would mean Asia's fourth largest economy will backtrack 1.1 percent this year from 2019. Fitch earlier predicted Seoul's economy to post negative growth of 0.9 percent. This is slightly better than the 1.3 percent contraction announced by the Bank of Korea last month. Fitch predicted that while the impact o

South Korea’s central bank announced Tuesday that it plans to directly purchase state bonds worth some 5 trillion won ($4.2 billion) by the end of this year to combat uncertainties stemming from the resurgence of the coronavirus here. “With the resurgence of the coronavirus leading to bigger market uncertainties, the government is expected to issue additional bonds,” the Bank of Korea said in a statement. “This is a preemptive move to alleviate risks from a possib

A report by Hong Kong-based investment bank CLSA lashed out at President Moon Jae-in‘s Korean New Deal initiative and the 20 trillion-won ($16.8 billion) fund to finance the projects, claiming his scheme promotes moral hazard and is designed to win votes. In the report titled “Moon’s debut as a fund manager,” Paul Choi, head of Korea research at CLSA, addressed possible negative impacts due to the government’s fund scheme, such as the “blowing of a bubble&rd

Home prices in Seoul and the neighboring area have shown some signs of stabilizing on the back of the government’s price-curbing measures, Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Hong Nam-ki said Tuesday. He also rolled out plans to provide some 60,000 new public apartments in greater Seoul in 2021-2022, with subscriptions due to start next year. “A month passed since taking effect, the Aug. 4 (housing) supply measures appear to be paying off to a certain extent,” the

The Bank of Korea (BOK) said Tuesday it plans to buy state bonds worth 5 trillion won ($4.2 billion) directly from the market by the end of this year in a bid to stabilize the debt market. The move is aimed at tackling potential market jitters and easing a sharp rise in market rates in a preemptive manner as the government is expected to increase bond issuance, the BOK said in a statement. The government plans to sell more bonds to finance the fourth extra budget designed to cushion the fallo

South Korean shares gained for a second consecutive session on Tuesday as investors pin hopes on the possibility that the European Central Bank (ECB) may signal further easing moves in its upcoming monetary policy meeting. The Korean won rose against the US dollar. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) rose 17.69 points, or 0.74 percent, to close at 2,401.91. Trading volume was high at about 966 million shares worth some 17 trillion won ($14.3 billion), with losers outnumberi

The coronavirus pandemic has hit small businesses in South Korea. The number of self-employed people decreased at an alarming rate in July compared with a year earlier, data showed Tuesday.  According to data compiled by the Korea Small Business Institute and Statistics Korea, the country had 5.548 million self-employed people registered as of last month, down 127,000 from the previous year. The sharp on-year drop was nearly five times as steep as in July last year, when the number of se

Despite the government’s claim that the housing market is stabilizing, apartment prices in Seoul increased in August from the previous month and the same was true for other cities across the nation, data showed Tuesday. The number of listings for “jeonse” rentals, which involve a large lump-sum deposit in lieu of monthly rent, and regular monthly rentals have dramatically decreased in recent weeks. Furthermore, landlords began raising rents before the government implemented

Korean asset management houses are facing a ripple effect from London-based investor H2O Asset Management‘s decision to halt fund withdrawals for four weeks and to draw up measures to seek redress from the fund freeze, according to an announcement Tuesday. VI Asset Management and Kiwoom Asset Management, both based in Seoul, have their combined investment of 460 billion won ($387 million) suspended from the redemptions, as the asset managers had bought mutual funds managed by H2O through

South Korea's economic recession is expected to be deeper than expected this year due to the coronavirus pandemic, and the pace of recovery may be delayed as there is no end in sight for the pandemic, a state-run think tank predicted Tuesday. Korea Development Institute (KDI) downgraded the nation's economic growth outlook to a contraction of 1.1 percent this year, a sharp downward revision of a 0.2 percent expansion in its May forecast. The nation's economy is expected to expand 3.5 percen

South Korean shipbuilders took the No. 1 ranking in new shipping orders in August for the second consecutive month on the back of orders for liquefied natural gas carriers, industry data showed Tuesday. According to the data provided by global market researcher Clarkson Research Service, the Korean shipbuilders' new orders amounted to 630,000 compensated gross tons (CGTs), or 23 ships, in August, which took up 73 percent of the global new orders totaling 860,000 CGTs, or 36 ships, last month.

HDC Hyundai Development Co.'s planned takeover of Asiana Airlines Inc. appears likely to collapse this week as the property developer failed to narrow differences with the airline's creditors over acquisition terms, people familiar with the matter said Tuesday.  The deal, if it falls through, would become the country's second botched deal in the coronavirus-hit airline sector this year, following Jeju Air Co.'s cancellation of its plan to acquire smaller rival Eastar Jet Co. in July. K

SEJONG -- South Korea and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) agreed to step up cooperation in the renewable energy sector, Seoul's finance ministry said Tuesday. The agreement was reached at an online meeting between Finance Minister Hong Nam-ki and the UAE's economy minister, Abdulla Bin Touq Al Marri, on Monday, the ministry said in a statement. South Korea and the UAE have held regular talks on economic cooperation since 2006, but Monday's meeting was the first talks since the coronavirus pand

South Korean shares opened higher Tuesday, buoyed by tech and bio gains on the main bourse. The Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) rose 16.84 points, or 0.71 percent, to 2,401.06 in the first 15 minutes of trading. The index rose above the 2,400-point mark as chipmakers continued to gain despite lingering valuation pressure on tech shares in major economies. Large caps traded mixed in Seoul. Market bellwether Samsung Electronics added 1.59 percent, with No. 2 chipmaker SK hynix ed