Concerns have been mounting recently that despite the government’s continued efforts, the secondary stock market Kosdaq may continue to struggle throughout the year due to sluggish investor sentiment here and external trade challenges.The Kosdaq index on Thursday dived into the 740s, nearing the year’s record-low of 744.11, a figure observed on July 25, according to the nation’s bourse Korea Exchange and Ministry of SMEs and Startups on Sunday.The index soon rebounded to the 77

SK Lubricants’ brand SK ZIC has signed a three-year sponsorship deal with FC Barcelona in its latest move to boost brand recognition and sales, the firm said Sunday.SK Lubricants -- owned 100 percent by South Korean refiner SK Innovation -- became the first South Korean corporate sponsor of FC Barcelona since the football club’s foundation in 1899.“We plan to increase SK ZIC’s brand recognition and global sales through the sponsorship,” SK Lubricant said in a press

South Korea is expected to be one of the countries most affected by the protracted trade war between the United States and China, though the impact is forecast to remain limited, a report said Sunday. According to the report from the Korea International Trade Association, the country's gross domestic product is forecast to drop 0.018 percent, worth some $236.49 million, over a year if the US and China each impose 25 percent tariffs on the other's $50 billion worth of goods. China and the US are

This is the 60th in a series of articles analyzing major companies traded on the tech-heavy Kosdaq market. -- Ed.Listed game software developers in South Korea suffered lackluster performance in the second quarter this year due to sparse new releases coupled with external uncertainties.Moreover, analysts have considered the second quarter a typically low season for the gaming industry.This downtrend makes social casino game developer DoubleU Games’ earnings surprise in the quarter stand ou

South Korean stocks may move in a tight range as investors are likely take a cautious approach due to lingering risks over various global issues, analysts said Saturday.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index closed at 2,247.05 on Friday, losing 1.57 percent, or 35.74 points, from a week ago. In the beginning of the week, a collapse of the Turkish lira sent a shockwave throughout the world. The Turkish currency had been on a sharp decline since the beginning of this year, but the pace ac

South Korea has denied a claim by US activist fund Elliott Associates that it gave discreet backing for a 2015 merger of two Samsung units and caused the firm to suffer losses from what it calls an unfair deal, a document from Seoul's justice ministry showed Friday. The Ministry of Justice released its official government response to the notice of arbitration lodged by Elliott in April. The two sides failed to settle the matter and they face an investor-state dispute through an international tri

Seoul-headquartered KB Kookmin Bank said Friday that it had launched a more efficient money-transfer service Thursday for its Indonesian customers, who can now convert South Korean won directly to Indonesian rupiah with no need to convert funds to US dollars first.  The commercial bank teamed up with Bank Negara Indonesia to lower the cost of converting currencies and make it possible to send money faster, KB Kookmin Bank said. Normally, to remit funds to Indonesia, a double-conversion proc

Korea's unemployment rate rose slightly in July due to fewer positions in the health care, education academy and manufacturing sectors, with the number of new jobs created hitting the lowest in over eight years, government data showed Friday.The unemployment rate stood at 3.7 percent last month, up 0.3 percentage point from a year earlier, according to the report compiled by Statistics Korea. The number of employed people reached 27.08 million in July, up just 5,000 from the same one-month perio

The Export-Import Bank of Korea will finance a copper mine project in Peru, seeking to support South Korean companies in securing strategic resources in the overseas market, officials said Thursday. The state-run bank on Thursday signed an agreement to inject some $200 million into the development of the Mina Justa Copper Mine in Peru, a project by local firms Minsur and Copec.Minsur, the mining arm of the South American state’s largest conglomerate Breca, is currently the world&rsquo

South Korea’s listed companies experienced lackluster earnings in the second quarter despite on-year growth in the first half of the year largely driven by Samsung Electronics, data showed Thursday. The combined first-half operating profit of 641 companies trading on the Kospi, including Samsung Electronics, jumped 18.6 percent on-year, while combined net profit surged 7.6 percent. However, if the data excludes Samsung Electronics, the figures significantly slid. The combined operating pro

An increase in government spending, which has been precipitated under President Moon Jae-in’s administration, contrasts with sluggish private consumption in the country.Economists note that expanded public expenditure coupled with dampened private consumption will do little to reinvigorate the Korean economy that is losing growth momentum.Recent data from the Bank of Korea showed government outlays accounted for 23.63 percent of the country’s domestic final consumption expenditure in

South Korea’s stock markets sank Monday on emerging market instability triggered by the sliding Turkish lira coupled with negative investor sentiment toward listed Korean biotech companies. The top-tier Kospi dipped 1.5 percent to close at 2,248.45, the lowest since May 4, 2017, following a foreign sell-off of 172.5 billion won ($152.2 million). The second-tier Kosdaq shed 3.7 percent to close at 755.65. Foreign and institutional investors net sold shares worth 158.1 billion won on Kosdaq.

South Korea’s exports to China maintained on-year growth, overcoming the downtrend until 2016, while new research by the central bank hinted at the need for Korea to shift away from its focus on exporting manufactured goods to China to continue the uptrend.From Aug. 1-10, the volume of Korean exports to China jumped 28.8 percent compared to the previous year, according to data compiled by the Korea Customs Service on Monday. This came alongside the on-year growth streak in 2018 until July.

Regulatory reforms need to be accelerated to ensure that massive investment plans unveiled or drawn up by the country’s major conglomerates will be implemented smoothly in the coming years, economists say.In the past months, six local business groups have announced plans to make new investments worth more than 330 trillion won ($290 billion) and hire 188,000 workers, with investment periods spanning one to five years.Samsung, Korea’s largest conglomerate, last week unveiled an invest