Seoul shares down 0.81 pct in late-morning trade

South Korean stocks traded 0.81 percent lower late Tuesday morning amid heightened political tension with North Korea, analysts said.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) shed 15.73 points to 1,937.48 as of 11:20 a.m.Tech blue chips led the decline, with market behemoth Samsung Electronics falling 0.63 percent, and top chipmaker SK hynix losing 2.67 percent.Brokerage houses were also trading in negative territory, with Samsung Securities decreasing 2.66 percent and KDB Daewoo S

Feb. 5, 2013

Experts find remains of England's King Richard III

He was king of England, but for centuries he lay without shroud or coffin in an unknown grave, and his name became a byword for villainy.On Monday, scientists announced they had rescued the remains of Richard III from anonymity _ and the monarch's fans hope a revival of his reputation will soon follow.In a dramatically orchestrated news conference, a team of archaeologists, geneticists, genealogists and other scientists from the University of Leicester announced that tests had proven what they s

TechnologyFeb. 5, 2013

NCsoft posts record earnings from flagship games

South Korean game giant NCsoft Corp. said Tuesday it posted a record quarterly profit in the fourth quarter of last year on the back of its flagship game Lineage and the successful launch of new games.Consolidated net profit reached 101.9 billion won ($93.7 million) in the October-December period, growing nearly six-fold from 17.1 billion won the previous year, NCsoft said in a regulatory filing.Revenue more than doubled to a record 283.4 billion won in the cited period, while operating profit s

IndustryFeb. 5, 2013

Seoul shares open lower on eurozone woes

South Korean stocks got off to a weak start Tuesday as political uncertainties over the eurozone dented investor sentiment here, analysts said.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) lost 15.57 points, or 0.8 percent, to trade at 1937.64 in the first 15 minutes of trading.Shares lost ground across the board, with market bellwether Samsung Electronics falling 1.18 percent and chipmaker SK hynix losing 1.23 percent. Flat panel giant LG Display shed 1.6 percent.Shipbuilders also tra

Feb. 5, 2013

S. Korea's manufacturing sector growth falters last year

South Korea's manufacturing sector growth lagged behind that of the service sector for the first time in three years in 2012 as exports were hurt by the global economic downturn, data showed Tuesday.The country's manufacturing sector grew 2.2 percent on-year in 2012, compared with a 2.4 percent on-year gain logged by the service industry, according to data by the central bank.The 2012 data marked the first time since 2009 that the growth of the service sector outpaced that of the manufacturing i

Feb. 5, 2013

S. Korean Cabinet to approve free trade deal with Colombia

The South Korean Cabinet plans to approve a free trade deal with Colombia on Tuesday as part of efforts to boost bilateral trade and pave the way to tap deeper into the South American market, officials said.After rounds of talks since late 2009, Seoul and Bogota concluded the deal in June last year, and initialed the pact two months later."Upon the Cabinet approval, the two countries are expected to formally sign the deal within this month, and to seek a legislative approval from each parliament

Feb. 5, 2013

S. Korea's tax agency probes top Internet portal operator NHN Corp.

South Korea's tax agency has launched an investigation into the nation's top Internet portal operator NHN Corp for the first time since 2007, a company official said Monday.The official said the probe is a regular tax investigation that occurs every four or five years but NHN's first tax probe in 2007 forced the company to pay 1.48 billion won (US$1.3 million) in additional taxes.The 2007 tax probe was the first on NHN since it was founded in 1999.Naver is NHN's flagship Web portal that features

TechnologyFeb. 4, 2013

Samsung, LG agree to settle patent row through dialogue

The heads of the world's biggest display makers, Samsung Display Co. and LG Display Co., agreed Monday to resolve their patent dispute through dialogue in an effort to stem the legal tussle from escalating.The two companies, affiliates of the country's biggest electronics firms Samsung Electronics Co. and LG Electronics Inc., have been embroiled in a patent suit over display technology as they race to bolster market leadership.Samsung Display and LG Display are currently involved in four litigat

IndustryFeb. 4, 2013

Restructuring sweeps securities industry

Downsizing is sweeping the securities industry with firms tightening management and costs amid the slowdown in the manufacturing sector, the Korea Financial Investment Association and analysts said.Some 60 brokerage houses have reduced the number of their retail branches by almost 100 nationwide to 1,681 over the last year, with some 720 executives being let go. Mirae Asset Securities closed down the most retail branches at 39, followed by Tongyang Securities shutting down 20 of its offices. Han

Feb. 4, 2013

Asiana IDT wins $230m ICT deal in Malaysia

Kumho Asiana Group said Monday its affiliate Asiana IDT, a software developer, won a 250 billion won ($230 million) deal to provide information and communication systems to a large-scale resort project in Malaysia. The Mersing Laguna Resort project aims to create a seaside multiplex park with a luxury resort, a shopping center and other recreational facilities on an 800-square-kilometer site on the east coast of Malaysia by December 2017. Asiana IDT, which recently set up a local venture in Kual

IndustryFeb. 4, 2013

17 fewer firms on FTC watch list

SEJONG (Yonhap News) ― South Korea’s antitrust watchdog said Monday that the number of companies subject to restrictions on mutual investments and loan guarantees declined by 17 in February from a month earlier.The Fair Trade Commission said the number of corporate affiliates on its watch list stood at 1,774 as of early February, down from 1,791 tallied in the previous month.Sixteen companies were newly added to the list, while 33 affiliates were taken off over the past month, the FTC said.The e

IndustryFeb. 4, 2013

Banks’ bad loan ratio slips in 2012

The ratio of bad loans at South Korean banks fell in 2012 from a year earlier as they stepped up efforts to write off problem loans around the end of the year, the financial regulator said Monday. The ratio of non-performing loans held by 18 local banks came to 1.32 percent as of the end of December last year, down 0.04 percentage point from the 1.36 percent tallied at the end of 2011, according to the Financial Supervisory Service. The bad loan ratio had been on a downtrend since 2010, when the

IndustryFeb. 4, 2013

Won rises 1.18% to dollar, shares fall

The South Korean currency rose 1.18 percent to the U.S. dollar on Monday as investors’ risk-aversion eased on the back of improved U.S. economic data, dealers said.The Korean stocks ended 0.23 percent lower as investors stepped to the sidelines due to prolonged currency volatility in the foreign exchange market, analysts said.The local currency closed at 1,084.60 won against the greenback, up 12.8 won from the previous session.“The won gained ground as U.S. data eased concerns about the fragile

Feb. 4, 2013

Panel suggests further hike in electricity rates

A presidential panel suggested Monday that South Korea further raise electricity rates, saying they are too low for a country that relies on imports for most of its energy needs.The suggestion, along with a hike in tap water charges, was among the 10 major tasks the Presidential Committee on Green Growth put forward to make South Korea a global “green power” during a reporting session to President Lee Myung-bak.The committee said that South Korea has had a policy of setting electricity price art

Feb. 4, 2013