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.

South Korea-issued bonds hit 1,000.2 trillion won ($885.52 billion) as of early last week, surpassing the 1,000 trillion-won mark for the first time, the Korea Financial Investment Association said Monday.Government bonds accounted for 671.64 trillion won of the total, and purpose bonds 328.56 trillion won Tuesday. The sum is more than double the 427 trillion won in 2008, the year the country was swept up in a global financial crisis. Bond issuance has been on the increase in recent years, recor

Preliminary earnings of South Korean listed companies are vindicating analysts’ downward revisions of their Q2 projections, due to a lingering US-China trade war impact, data showed Sunday. Of 145 companies listed on the top-tier Kospi, covering nearly three-quarters of the market cap or a combined 1,099.3 trillion won ($973.3 billion), 72 reported earnings within 10 percent of the market consensus, according to data compiled by KB Securities as of Thursday. Of the remainder, the majority

South Korean shares are expected to be locked in a narrow range next week as investors take to the sidelines amid global trade tension worries, analysts said Saturday.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) closed at 2,282.79. points on Friday, slightly down from 2,287.68 points a week earlier.The local stock market started mildly lower Monday as institutional and foreign buyers offloaded large-cap shares, mostly offsetting a massive selling spree by individuals. The index, howev

Offshore investors shifted to a net buying mode on South Korea's main KOSPI market last month, ending a five-month selling streak that weighed down the index, data showed Saturday.Foreigners picked up a net 373.4 billion won ($332.2 million) worth of local stocks listed on the top-tier market during the one-month period, according to the data from the Korea Exchange (KRX).It is the first time that they bought more shares than they sold since January, when they scooped up 1.98 trillion won worth

South Korean financial technology startup Moin resumed its cross-border money transfer service without currency conversion fees double-charged to residents in China, starting Aug. 1, according to Moin on Wednesday. This came after Moin’s remittance service with China was suspended since May 2017.  Taking advantage of Moin’s prefunding scheme, those who receive money transferred from Korea will not be charged won-to-dollar and dollar-to-yuan conversion fees, unlike interbank meth

Unionized workers at South Korean banks voted Tuesday to go on strike amid a feud with management over the introduction of the shorter workweek system and other key pending issues, officials said.The decision was made in voting that ended at 6 p.m., according to the officials. The workers' detailed action plan will be announced on Thursday.  Preliminary counting showed that more than 80 percent of the workers participated in the voting, of which over 90 percent approved the move, an officia

The Korea Herald is publishing a series of interviews on promising startups in the financial technology industry. This is the 20th installment. -- Ed.Since taking office in 2014, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has sought to level the playing field for offshore and domestic companies in financial services, declaring an end to bureaucratic “red tape.”For example, Indian financial authorities lowered regulatory hurdles in late 2016 that were set particularly for foreign business en

South Korean remittance startup Sentbe said Tuesday it has signed a memorandum of understanding with Vietcombank Remittance. The move will allow recipients to pick up wired money in an hour on average from some 2,500 automated teller machines or some 500 branches that belong to Vietcombank, as well as some 500 nonbank cash pickup centers, with up to 95 percent lower commission fees, the startup said. This is a step up from the Korean startup’s existing partnership with Vietnam. Vitecombank

South Korea’s Kyobo Life Insurance has launched a variable life insurance product that covers an individual’s education expenses for college in line with the company’s original philosophy, the firm said Monday.Since it was founded in 1958, Kyobo, formerly known as Daehan Kyoyuk Insurance and short for “life insurance for educational expenses,” was the first to introduce insurance products for education cost to promote literacy in the nation torn by the Korean War at

Korea's current account surplus continued its upside mode in June on an improved goods account surplus and reduced travel deficit, central bank data showed Friday.The country's current account surplus came to $7.38 billion in June, up from $6.94 billion in the black a year ago, according to the preliminary data from the Bank of Korea. From a month earlier, the June figure declined from an eight-month high of $8.68 billion.Asia's fourth-largest country has maintained a current account surplus for

Before it backtracked, the claim of a South Korean company that it had discovered a “treasure battleship” in South Korean territorial waters was a ray of hope for digital asset investors in search of a financial bonanza.But the hope quickly diminished for investors holding what is thought to be a digital asset called Shinil Gold Coin, after a recent press conference by the Korean business entity. On July 26, officials of Seoul-based Shinil Group, declaring that it had changed its nam

South Korea’s central bank on Tuesday unveiled plans to create an equivalent to China’s Alipay or WeChat Pay by the first half of 2019, in a move to cut “social costs” of consumers and merchants caused by card networks here. The new infrastructure for smartphone-based mobile wallet service will allow an online payment to be settled between customers and vendors without intermediaries like a card network, where card companies, payment gateway providers and virtual account

Peer-to-peer borrowers on South Korean lending platform Tera Funding had repaid 202.4 billion won ($180.6 million) in loans without becoming overdue, as of end-June, according to the startup on Monday. This marked the first time that a Korean P2P lending platform extended loans over 200 billion won and had the borrowing fully compensated, the startup said. Founded in 2014 by former banker and foreclosure freelancer Yang Tae-young, Tera Funding has been dedicated to financing projects for real es