South Korean shares opened higher Tuesday on large cap gains led by market kingpin Samsung Electronics after a Seoul court rejected the arrest warrant for Samsung's de facto leader Lee Jae-yong. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) rose 24.68 points, or 1.13 percent, to 2,208.97 in the first 15 minutes of trading. Hopes of an economic recovery continued to boost investor sentiment, while the court's rejection of the arrest warrant for Lee further improved their outlook on f

Mirae Asset Financial Group founder Park Hyeon-joo has backed a total of 315,119 students over two decades as Park donated his dividend income, the group said Monday. The fund was offered through Mirae Asset Park Hyeon-joo Foundation, established in 2000. The donations went to scholarships to over 9,000 college students, or roughly 700 students each year since 2007. Of the total, some 60 percent of students participated in exchange student programs, for which the Mirae Asset Park Hyeon-joo

The South Korean stock market has been bullish in recent weeks thanks to abundant liquidity here and abroad given efforts to boost the coronavirus-battered economies. The nation’s main bourse Kospi has recovered to pre-coronavirus levels while the tech-heavy Kosdaq market has recently hit a new high. Although some experts warn of another big drop in the stock market, it is widely forecast that with the ample liquidity the crash will be more subdued than in March. “The stock mar

South Korean stocks closed higher Monday, extending a winning streak to a seventh consecutive session despite losses in Samsung Electronics and other Samsung affiliates' shares. The Korean won rose against the US dollar. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) lost 2.42 points, or 0.11 percent, to close at 2,184.29. Trading volume was moderate at about 842.9 million shares worth some 12.9 trillion won ($10.7 billion), with gainers outnumbering losers 444 to 393. Institutions s

As part of its move to nurture the data-based financial industry and financial technology businesses, Korea’s financial authorities will open up 44.5 million pieces of public financial data to the public for free, starting Wednesday, regulator Financial Services Commission said Monday. The range of public financial data consists of large sets of information stored at the FSC and eight other public financial institutions in Korea -- the Financial Supervisory Service, the Korea Developmen

Corporate bond issues in South Korea soared nearly 54 percent to recover to pre-coronavirus levels in May, with foreign bond holdings hitting a new high, data showed Monday. South Korean companies floated bonds of 11.4 trillion won ($9.47 billion) last month, up 54.1 percent from the previous month, according to the data from the Korea Financial Investment Association. The amount is close to the corporate debt sales of 12.3 trillion won in February, a month before the World Health Organizatio

Housing prices in South Korea are expected to rise in the latter half of this year due to growing demand buoyed by lower interest rates, the Eugene Investment and Securities said in its quarterly report Monday.  “Cash flow into the housing sector will continue to rise amid the prolonged period of low interest rates here, with a rise in demand triggering higher apartment prices,” said Kim Yeol-mae, an analyst at the brokerage. Meanwhile, the average apartment price in Seoul du

South Korean banks saw their average capital adequacy ratio fall slightly in the first quarter from the previous quarter, data showed Monday. The average capital adequacy ratio of 19 commercial and state-run banks stood at 14.72 percent as of the end of March, down 0.54 percentage point from the end of December, according to the data from the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS). A key barometer of financial soundness, the ratio measures the proportion of a bank's capital to its risk-weighted

Earnings forecasts for South Korea's listed firms rebounded from a long downturn last week amid rising hopes for their possible exit from the coronavirus shock, a market tracker said Monday. Companies listed on the country's main stock market saw the average estimate of their earnings per share (EPS) for the next 12 months amount to 6,038 won ($4.99) on Thursday, up 2.5 percent from the prior week, according to FnGuide. The increase in EPS, or a company's profit divided by its outstanding com

Foreign investors became net sellers of South Korean stocks in May, extending their selling spree to a fourth straight month, data showed Monday. Foreigners sold a net 4.06 trillion won ($3.3 billion) worth of local stocks last month, according to the data from the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS). American investors sold a net 1.8 trillion won of stocks last month, while Saudi investors net purchased 600 billion won worth of stocks, according to the FSS. As of end-May, local stocks held

South Korean shares opened higher Friday, tracking gains on Wall Street that followed an estimate-beating jobs report in the United States. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) rose 17.62 points, or 0.81 percent, to 2,199.49 in the first 15 minutes of trading. The gains were largely attributed to a drop in the US unemployment rate in May, possibly suggesting an economic recovery. The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 829.16 points, or 3.15 percent, to close at 27,110,98

Amid the lingering virus pandemic, South Korea’s online banks are expanding their foothold faster than expected, and are gearing up for IPOs and partnerships with financial behemoths.

Despite some recovery on the back of the government’s expansionary fiscal moves, South Korea’s economy is continuing to contract, as the negative impact of COVID-19 spreads across all industries, a state-run think tank warned Sunday. The pessimistic analysis came as the country is exerting all policy efforts to boost the virus-hit economy, including a 35.3 trillion-won ($29.2 billion) supplementary budget bill submitted to the National Assembly on Thursday. “The Korean econo

Among OECD members, Korea’s dollar exchange rate second only to Colombia’s

Business lobby groups in 18 countries forecast the global economy to contract 4 percent this year due to the impact of the new coronavirus outbreak, a South Korean industry association said Sunday. The 4 percent negative growth outlook is worse than the International Monetary Fund's forecast of a 3 percent contraction for the year and better than the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's 5.1 percent contraction, the Federation of Korean Industries (FKI) said in a statement.&