Earnings outlook darkens on external risks: experts

Analysts projected earnings to drop at major listed firms on the KOSPI as export conditions deteriorate with still-elevated oil prices and eurozone output contracting.FnGuide, the most widely accessed financial information provider here, lowered the earnings forecasts this week for 108 companies listed on the KOSPI to 81.3 trillion won ($72 billion), down 7.98 percent from the 88.3 trillion won it made in September.The downward adjustment came as the index climbed up almost 400 points from the d

Feb. 23, 2012

Hanwha shares suspended for one trading session

Shares of Hanwha Corp. will be suspended from stock trading for one session due to its negligent regulatory posting, the bourse operator said Thursday. The holding company of Hanwha Group, a family-owned conglomerate, has been blacklisted by the bourse operator as “a negligent firm” which has delayed posting necessary investor information on its regulatory filings, the Korea Exchange said. Because it failed to follow set rules, the company’s shares will not be traded on the main bourse for the w

Feb. 23, 2012

Korea to expand incentives to curb inflation pressure

Korea will grant more incentives to municipal governments for their anti-inflation efforts in a bid to encourage their cooperation in keeping rising prices from hurting the nation’s overall economy, the top economic policymaker said Thursday.Korea has been wrestling with high inflation, mostly driven by rising oil and food prices. For 2011, the nation’s consumer prices jumped 4 percent from a year earlier, hitting the upper ceiling of the central bank’s 2-4 percent target band.“We will increase

Feb. 23, 2012

Listed firms’ cash dividend sinks 7.2 percent in 2011

Korean listed firms’ cash dividend paid out to their shareholders shrank 7.2 percent in 2011 from a year earlier, largely due to a decrease in the payouts by top-cap Samsung Electronics Co., data showed Thursday.The combined cash dividend paid out by 224 firms listed on the main bourse stood at 8.83 trillion won ($7.82 billion) in the 2011 fiscal year as of Feb. 21, compared with 9.52 trillion won in the previous fiscal year, according to the data by the Korea Exchange. The cited firms include t

Feb. 23, 2012

Finance minister voices worries over excessive welfare demands

Korea’s top economic policymaker voiced concerns Thursday over “excessive” welfare demand, saying that such populism-driven policies could end up shifting burdens to future generations.“Excessive welfare deriving from populism dampens the will to work, undermines fiscal soundness and shifts the burden of payment to the next generation,” Finance Minister Bahk Jae-wan said in a speech at an international forum in Seoul.“Unnecessary welfare benefits handed out now will boomerang on the next generat

Feb. 23, 2012

Samsung Fire to cut premiums on car cover

Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance Co., Korea’s largest nonlife insurer, said Thursday it will slash its auto insurance premiums by an average of 2.2 percent.Samsung Fire’s move came after a recent decision by the local financial regulator and the industry to mark down car insurance premiums amid worries over the country’s rising inflation, which has increased the cost of living in the country. The No. 1 nonlife insurer’s proposed rate is 0.1 percentage point lower than it initially offered, accord

Feb. 23, 2012

Samsung Techwin wins order for Saudi plant

Samsung Techwin Co., a South Korean power systems, automation and defense contractor, said Thursday that it won a deal to supply industrial air compressors to a Saudi gas plant.The company, which did not go into details about price, said it will supply 17 compressors that can be used to make gas oil to the Shaybah natural gas liquids plant complex in the Middle Eastern country. The NGL plant is being built by Samsung Engineering Co. Both Samsung Techwin and Samsung E&G are part of the Samsung Gr

Feb. 23, 2012

E-commerce sales jump to all-time high

Korea’s e-commerce sales jumped to an all-time high in 2011 as cyber transactions grew sharply between businesses, a government report showed Thursday.Online sales totaled about 999 trillion won ($884.9 billion) last year, up 21.2 percent from the 824 trillion won tallied in the previous year, according to the report by Statistics Korea.Business-to-business transactions, which accounted for more than 90 percent of all cyber sales, came to 912.56 trillion won, up 22.1 percent from a year earlier.

IndustryFeb. 23, 2012

Facial cosmetic surgery shaves off 9 years

TORONTO (UPI) -- Patients looked almost nine years younger than they actually were after facial cosmetic surgery, researchers in Toronto found.Dr. Nitin Chauhan of the University of Toronto and colleagues attempted to quantify the change in perceived age, which may provide objective evidence of the

TechnologyFeb. 23, 2012

S. Korean scientists develop enhanced container for hydrogen fuel

South Korean scientists have developed an enhanced material to contain hydrogen fuel that could significantly reduce the size of containers while holding more fuel, the government said Thursday.The new material could help speed up the development of hydrogen-fuel cars while improving the efficiency and overall competitiveness of such vehicles, as it will help reduce the size of fuel tanks, according to the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology. The ministry partly funded the research by

TechnologyFeb. 23, 2012

Study: Y chromosome not going 'extinct'

A study has contradicted the notion the male sex-determining Y chromosome is steadily shedding genes and is doomed to degenerate, U.S. researchers say. In a 2002 article in Nature, two Australian researchers examined the rate at which the Y has withered and estimated it "will self-destruct in aro

TechnologyFeb. 23, 2012

Study: 1-of-6 U.S.surgeons abuse alcohol

More than 15 percent of U.S. surgeons in an anonymous survey self-reported disorders consistent with alcohol abuse or dependence, researchers said.Dr. Michael R. Oreskovich of the American College of Surgeons in Chicago and the University of Washington, Seattle, and colleagues collected more than 7,

TechnologyFeb. 23, 2012

Antitrust watchdog to probe retail giants in March

The nation’s antitrust watchdog said Wednesday that it will launch a large-scale investigation into unfair business practices at major department stores and supermarket chains next month. The Fair Trade Commission also plans to revise a leniency program so that when two companies are caught price-fixing only the first declarer has its fines cut.“We will look into how commission cuts, agreed in September, are carried out at 11 major retailers and whether there are any illegal business activities

IndustryFeb. 22, 2012

Korea to invest 16 tln won in scientific R&D in 2012

South Korea will invest about 16 trillion won ($14.2 billion) in scientific research and development (R&D) efforts this year, a presidential body said Wednesday.The amount is up 7.6 percent from the 14.89 trillion won set aside for the same purpose last year, according to the National Science and Te

Feb. 22, 2012

Korean makers beat Japanese rivals in global TV market

A recent research said Wednesday that Korean TV makers sold more units of flat-screen televisions sets compared to its Japanese rivals for the first time globally.According to market research firm DisplaySearch, Korea recorded 34 percent in market share in terms of total TV units sold globally in the final quarter of last year, while Japan’s market share reached 31 percent.The Korean TV makers ― Samsung and LG Electronics ― have been beating its Japanese rivals in global quarterly sales volume o

IndustryFeb. 22, 2012

SK Group, global companies to join petrochemical project in China

SK Group said on Wednesday it will take part in a project to build a major petrochemical complex in China with global petrochemical companies such as China’s Sinopec and British Petroleum.SK said it signed a preliminary deal with Sinopec and BP on Wednesday to build production facilities for butanediol, acetic acid and ammonia in the southwestern Chinese city of Chongqing by as early as 2014.The 1.2-trillion-won complex will break ground as early as July or August, and is expected to reap more t

IndustryFeb. 22, 2012