South Korean stocks ended at a fresh record high Monday taking a cue from gains on Wall Street last week. The won rose against the US dollar.  The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index rose 10.47 points, or 0.43 percent, to close at a record high of 2,425.10. Trade volume was moderate at 252.17 million shares worth 4.82 trillion won ($4.27 billion), with gainers outnumbering losers 526 to 279.Institutional investors bought a net 110.77 billion won worth of stocks on expectations that

South Korean stocks opened higher Monday tracking gains on Wall Street, with investors waiting for second-quarter earnings results from big companies due out later this month.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index added 11.89 points, or 0.49 percent, to a high of 2,426.52 in the first 15 minutes of trading.On Friday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average ended up 0.39 percent at 21,637.74 and the tech-heavy NASDAQ was up 0.61 percent to 6,312.47. Companies such as Samsung Electronics Co. and

Stock trading via smartphones accounted for an average 34.48 percent of daily trading on the secondary KOSDAQ market during the first half of this year, the nation's bourse operator said Monday. In 2010, stock trading via smartphones took up just 3.8 percent of the KOSDAQ market, according to the Korea Exchange. Mobile stock trading in South Korea has jumped over the past seven years, mainly due to brokerages' stepped-up marketing efforts for smartphone users.  Last year, stock trading via

A nominee for the nation’s financial watchdog on Sunday addressed the need to ease ownership regulations on non-financial entities in the banking sector to promote additional launches of internet-only banks.　Choi Jong-ku, the nominee for chairman of the Financial Services Commission, said a pending bill on easing up Korea‘s existing banking laws to accommodate non-financial industries owning bank stakes, should be decided considering the nature of internet-only banks designed to cove

The value of South Korea's overseas investment funds has jumped more than 40 percent over the past year as big-time investors look overseas for high returns despite the recent bull of the domestic stock market, data showed Sunday. According to the data by the Korea Financial Investment Association, the combined net worth of overseas investment funds came to 110.75 trillion won ($97.7 billion) as of Wednesday, up 40.4 percent from a year earlier.Funds investing in special overseas assets, excludi

South Korea's initial public offering market is expected to lose ground sharply in the second half of the year as several large candidates have scrapped or postponed their plans, sources said Sunday. The country's IPO market was white-hot in the first six months of the year thanks to share sales by South Korea's largest mobile games maker Netmarble Games Corp. and three other companies that were listed on the main stock market.The four companies raised 3.9 trillion won ($3.44 billion) by selling

South Korea’s main bourse index continued its relentless record run Friday, closing at 2,414.63 points, up 0.21 percent from the previous day’s close at 2,409.49.Making the historic jump past the 2,400 closing mark Thursday, the benchmark Korea Composite Stock Market Index has risen 18.9 percent from Jan. 2 to Thursday, the highest in seven years, according to data by the market operator, the Korea Exchange.Analysts, meanwhile, focused on the shifting sands amid the bull run, with fo

Foreign currency deposits held by banks operating in South Korea dropped in June as exporters decreased their deposits of dollar-denominated earnings, central bank data showed Friday.Outstanding foreign currency deposits held by local lenders, domestic and foreign, reached US$63.61 billion in June, down $6.33 billion from a month earlier, the Bank of Korea said in a statement.Broken down, foreign currency deposits held by domestic banks came to $54.44 billion in June, down from 59.87 billion in

Citibank Korea, the South Korean unit of Citigroup Inc., and its labor union on Friday signed an agreement under which the bank will slightly reduce the number of branches it plans to shut down and not lay off employees without justifiable cause.Citibank Korea, which had operated a total of 126 retail banking branches in South Korea, had originally planned to shut down 101 branches. But the move has been criticized by the union and some politicians for leaving customers without easy access to ke

Driven by high corporate earnings and expectations of a global economic recovery, foreign ownership of Korean stocks reached over 602 trillion won as of Tuesday, hitting a record high, according to Koscom, the systems manager of Korea Exchange.It accounts for 34.04 percent of the total market cap of listed stocks, marking the first time for the figure to surpass 34 percent since June 20 of 2007.

The main bourse of South Korea leaped to another record-high Thursday, surpassing the 2,400 closing mark for the first time in history. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index rose 0.74 percent to close at 2,409.49 Thursday from Wednesday’s closing at 2,391.77.The top-tier stock market continued its record run, a day after it retreated 0.18 percent from the previous record high at 2,396.00 Tuesday.Foreign investors showed a strong buying trend, recording net purchase of 372.9 billi

South Korea’s central bank on Thursday raised its 2017 growth forecast to 2.8 percent, up 0.2 percentage point from its April projection, and to 2.9 percent in 2018, on the back of upbeat macroeconomic data at home and abroad. Meanwhile, the Bank of Korea decided to hold its policy rate steady at an all-time low of 1.25 percent for the 13th consecutive month on weak domestic consumption readings and continuing external uncertainties. Consumer price inflation was projected to stand at 1.9 p

South Korean stocks closed at a record-high level on Thursday as investors' sentiment was boosted by overnight gains on Wall Street. The Korean won gained against the US dollar.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index soared 17.72 points, or 0.74 percent, to close at a fresh record high of 2,409.49. Trade volume was low at 284 million shares worth 6.05 trillion won ($5.32 billion), with gainers slightly outnumbering losers 397 to 396.The index reached an all-time intraday high of 2.422.26

Sales of variable insurance policies more than doubled in the first quarter of this year as local stock markets reported robust gains, industry data showed Thursday. The first premium for variable insurance policies, which invest part of the funds they control in stocks and bonds, rose to 545.5 billion won ($477.2 million) during the January-March quarter, compared with 215.2 billion won for the same three-month period last year, according to the data by the Korea Life Insurance Association.&nbs