The Korea Herald

Seoul shares open higher on Greek deal

South Korean shares opened higher on Tuesday as investors welcomed a tentative agreement on a third Greek bailout scheme, analysts said. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index added 6.68 points, or 0.32 percent, to 2,068.2 in the first 15 minutes of trading.Bio shares traded in the positive terrain. Schnell Biopharmaceutical jumped 19.25 percent, and Yuhan Corporation, a major drugmaker, rose 2.51 percent.POSCO increased 4.05 percent as the nation's top steelmaker, currently under inves

July 14, 2015

Foreigners turn to net sellers of Korean stocks in June

Foreign investors turned to net sellers for the first time in five months in June as the global financial market tumbled due to growing risks of a possible U.S. rate hike and a potential Greek default, the financial watchdog said Tuesday.Offshore investors dumped a net 389 billion won ($344.7 million) worth of local stocks in June, shifting from the 1.35 trillion-won net buying in the previous month, according to the Financial Supervisory Service.They had held on to the net-buyer position since

July 14, 2015

Hana, KEB union agree on merger

The Hana Financial Group building is reflected in the window of a KEB office in Seoul. (Yonhap)Hana Financial Group and the Korea Exchange Bank labor union reached an agreement on the Hana Bank-KEB merger deal Monday, heralding the launch of Korea’s largest lender by assets.The banking group said it would complete the merger process by Sept. 1, as the last hurdle was now cleared. Hana Financial has pushed for the merger since its acquisition of KEB from U.S. buyout fund Lone Star in 2012. But th

July 13, 2015

Foreigners pull out of S. Korean bond market

Foreign investors are showing signs of leaving the South Korean bond market, while the "Grexit" concerns and the recent Chinese rout have triggered an outflow of foreign funds from the country's stock market, industry data showed Monday.According to the data, offshore investors held 105 trillion won ($92.8 billion) worth of won-denominated bonds as of Friday, down 2.7 trillion won from 107.7 trillion won tallied last Monday.Their ownership of Treasury bonds and monetary stabilization bonds dropp

July 13, 2015

Growth of overseas direct purchases slows in H1

Growth of South Korean consumers' overseas direct purchases sharply slowed in the first half as demand waned on economic concerns, unfavorable exchange rates and other factors, a government report showed Monday.South Koreans ordered some $770 million worth of goods from aboard in the January-June period, up 7 percent from $720 million the year before, the Korea Customs Service said.In terms of volume, there were 7.91 million shipments, a gain of 6 percent from 7.46 million purchases that cleared

July 13, 2015

State pension fund raises stakes in domestic-focused stocks

South Korea's state pension fund has raised its presence in domestic-focused stocks in the second quarter as major exporters underperformed the broader market amid growing uncertainties in the global economy, data showed Monday. The National Pension Service, the nation's biggest institutional investor, newly bought or purchased more stocks with greater exposure to domestic spending in the April-June period, particularly increasing bets in consumer staples, pharmaceuticals, clothing and media, ac

July 13, 2015

Seoul shares expected to remain volatile next week

South Korean stocks will likely experience fluctuations next week on lingering concerns about Greek debts talks and the choppy Chinese market with bleak second-quarter earnings outlooks, analysts said.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) closed at 2,031.17 on Friday, down 3.48 percent from a week earlier due mainly to downbeat news from Greece and China.The index plunged 2.4 percent on Monday, the largest fall in three years, after more than 60 percent of Greek voters rejected

July 11, 2015

HDC Shilla, Hanwha win duty-free bids

HDC Shilla Duty Free Shop and Hanwha Galleria Time World ended victorious in the fierce battle to win business licenses to run large-scale duty-free shops in downtown Seoul. From left: The headquarter buildings of Hyundai Development Co., Hotel Shilla and Hanwha (Yonhap)With their hard-won golden ticket, the two retail giants expect to boost their yearly sales by trillions of won. In 2014, duty-free stores in Seoul posted combined sales of 4.4 trillion won ($3.9 billion), which accounted for mor

July 10, 2015

Korea to sell 4tr won in Treasury bills in July

South Korea plans to sell 4 trillion won (US$3.5 billion) worth of Treasury bills in four separate auctions in July, the finance ministry said Friday. "The funds generated will be used to cover temporary shortfalls in the money supply and allow the government to push forward various spending projects," the ministry said. "The cash generated can further help stabilize the management of state-controlled funds." The amount to be issued is smaller than the 4.5 trillion won worth of bills sold th

July 10, 2015

[Photo News] FSS meets foreign firms

Zhin Woong-seob (fourth from right), governor of the Financial Supervisory Service, speaks Thursday in a regular breakfast meeting with 22 foreign financial firms operating in Korea. At the meeting, the governor urged the CEOs to take more proactive measures to reduce customer complaints and also promised to achieve an improved supervisory environment for domestic and foreign firms. (FSS)

July 9, 2015

OB joins Mongolia forestry efforts

Korean beer company takes initiative in preventing desertification in key export countryULAAN BATOR -- Landlocked between Russia and China, Mongolia is a country of plains, horse riding and nomadic heritage. This homeland of Genghis Khan also happens to be the largest importer of Cass, the signature product of South Korea’s largest beer manufacturer Oriental Brewery Company.As part of its effort to integrate more closely into the local community, OB decided to pitch into a key Mongolian issue --

July 9, 2015

NYSE suffers outage as US stocks slump

NEW YORK -- The New York Stock Exchange halted trading Wednesday for more than three hours due to technical problems that it said were not caused by hacking.The outage was due to "an internal technical issue" and "was not the result of a cyber breach," NYSE said on Twitter. "We chose to suspend trading on NYSE to avoid problems arising from our technical issue."Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange at the close of the day after trading was paused for nearly four hours due to a

July 9, 2015

Korea cuts growth outlook to 2.8%

The Bank of Korea on Thursday revised its outlook on the nation’s gross domestic product growth down to 2.8 percent from its earlier forecast of 3.1 percent, citing weaker-than-expected consumer sentiment due to the outbreak of Middle East respiratory syndrome in May and June and an ongoing export slump. This is the second downgrade of the year, three months after the central bank cut the 3.4 percent outlook to 3.1 percent in April due to the weak Japanese yen versus the Korean currency and inte

July 9, 2015

Seoul shares rebound on eased China woes

South Korean stocks bounced back from days of losses Thursday as investors got a boost from a jump in China's main index, analysts said. The local currency gained ground against the U.S. dollar.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index gained 11.6 points, or 0.58 percent, to close at 2,027,81, snapping a four-session losing streak. Trading volume was heavy at 401.8 million shares worth 6.99 trillion won ($6.17 billion), with losers beating gainers 486 to 327.The Shanghai Composite Index ju

July 9, 2015

Four major banks' Q2 net likely plunge 33 pct: report

South Korea's four major banking groups are likely to see their second-quarter net profit plunge more than 33 percent due mainly to a drop in interest income stemming from a low rate trend, a report showed Thursday.The combined net profit of Shinhan Financial Group Co., KB Financial Group Inc., Hana Financial Group Inc. and Woori Bank is expected to reach 1.2 trillion won ($1.06 billion) for the April-July period, compared to 1.9 trillion won the previous quarter, according to the report release

July 9, 2015

FSC to slash private loan interest rates

The regulator plans to slash the maximum interest rate that nonbanking lenders can charge. The Financial Services Commission recently investigated several private lenders, to find that their borrowing rate policies were all high, and did not reflect the central bank’s recent rate cuts. On June 11, the Bank of Korea lowered the base interest rate to a record low of 1.5 percent, following the economic losses due to the outbreak of the Middle East respiratory syndrome and weak yen. This was the fou

July 8, 2015

FSC to slash private loan interest rates

Seoul shares hit near 4-month low on Greek, Chinese woes

South Korean stocks plunged 1.18 percent to a near four-month low Wednesday as uncertainties about the future of the eurozone and the slowing Chinese economy sapped investor sentiment here, analysts said. The Korean won declined sharply against the U.S. dollar.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index lost 24.08 points to close at 2,016.21, marking the lowest since March 16. Trading volume was heavy at 444.1 million shares worth 7.44 trillion won ($6.55 billion), with decliners beating gai

July 8, 2015

S. Korea tracks U.S. rate moves with 10-month time lag: report

South Korea's monetary policy usually moves in tandem with that of the U.S. after an average 10-month time lag, a report showed Wednesday, as market watchers are keeping eyes on the time frame of a much-awaited rate hike in the world's largest economy.The report, compiled by Woori Finance Research Institute, showed that since May 1999, South Korea's interest rate hikes and reductions have come some 10 months after the U.S. Federal Reserve's rate decision.The study, however, showed that South Kor

July 8, 2015

Won falls to almost year-low on Greek, Fed rate woes

The U.S. dollar approached its strongest level of the year against the Korean won Tuesday over aggravated uncertainty due to Greek woes.After gaining Monday, the greenback further climbed Tuesday to close at 1,130.2 won, up 3.7 won from the trading session before. This marked its highest since it peaked at 1,131.5 won on March 16. Should the rate break through the year-high of 1,131.5 won, the next barrier will be 1,135.5 won, which was last posted two years ago.After diving to below 1,010 won o

July 7, 2015

Household debt hits record high in May

South Korea’s household debt hit a record high in May, although its monthly growth rate has slowed considerably due to a sharp drop in household bank loans, the central bank reported Tuesday. According to Bank of Korea data, the nation’s total household debt rose to 768.2 trillion won ($679.2 billion) as of the end of May, up 2.9 trillion won. The figure increased for 16 consecutive months since January of last year, when the amount decreased by 2 trillion won. Of the 2.9 trillion won rise in bo

July 7, 2015