Seoul stocks open higher on Wall Street gains

South Korean stocks opened slightly higher Wednesday, tracking overnight gains on Wall Street amid hopes for progress in US stimulus. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) rose 2.55 points, or 0.08 percent, to 3,087.22 points in the first 15 minutes of trading. Overnight, the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite rose 0.14 percent to a new record high, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 0.03 percent. Large caps traded mixed in Seoul. Market kingpin Samsung Electronics fell

Feb. 10, 2021

Galaxy S21 posts 30% higher sales in S. Korea than its predecessor: Samsung

Samsung Electronics Co. said Wednesday its latest smartphone line, the Galaxy S21 series, posted 30 percent higher sales than its predecessor in South Korea as the tech giant strives to boost its handset sales. Samsung said sales of the Galaxy S21 family between Jan. 29 and Monday were 30 percent higher than those of the Galaxy S20 series. By model, the entry-level S21 accounted for 40 percent of the total sales, followed by high-end S21 Ultra with 36 percent. The S21 was launched with a pric

Feb. 10, 2021

Sales of high-risk DLS dip 31% in H1 of 2020

The issuance of high-risk derivatives-linked securities (DLS) in South Korea plunged 31 percent in the first half of 2020 amid the fallout from a misselling scandal, data showed Wednesday. The local market for DLS, which doesn't guarantee the principal, came to 12.7 trillion won ($11.4 billion) as of end-June last year, compared with 16.1 trillion won six months earlier, according to the data from the Financial Supervisory Service. A DLS tracks the performance of interest rates, currency value

Feb. 10, 2021

BOK injects W4.75tr into financial sector ahead of holiday

South Korea's central bank said Wednesday it has provided a net 4.75 trillion won ($4.25 billion) in liquidity to the financial sector to help the flow of money ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday. The Bank of Korea (BOK) said it decreased its money injection by 15.7 percent this year from a year earlier because of social distancing rules amid the coronavirus pandemic. Health authorities have called on people to refrain from traveling for family gatherings to contain the spread of the virus. A

Feb. 10, 2021

Job loss largest in over 2 decades in January amid pandemic

South Korea reported the largest job loss in January since 1998 as a flare-up in new coronavirus cases, along with continued virus curbs, dealt a heavy blow to jobs in the service sector, data showed Wednesday. The number of employed people reached 25.8 million last month, 982,000 fewer than a year earlier, according to the data compiled by Statistics Korea. It marked the sharpest on-year fall since December 1998, when the country lost 1.28 million jobs in the wake of the 1997-98 Asian financi

Feb. 10, 2021

Emart 2020 net profit up 62% on one-off revenues

  Emart Inc., South Korea's largest discount store chain by sales, on Tuesday reported a 62 percent on-year jump in net profit last year due to increased one-off revenues. Net profit for the whole of 2020 came to 362.5 billion won ($324.8 million), up from 223.8 billion won a year earlier, the company said in a regulatory filing. Emart said its sale of a 39,050-square-meter plot of land in western Seoul last year buoyed the bottom line. Emart sold the plot of land for 800 billion won in

Feb. 9, 2021

GC Pharma posts record earnings in 2020

GC Pharma and its affiliated companies GCMS and GC LabCell posted record earnings in 2020, they announced Tuesday. GC Pharma’s consolidated earnings report showed that it made 1.5 trillion won ($1.34 billion) in revenue in 2020, up 10.8 percent on-year. It was the best figure in the company’s history since 1967. In the same period, operating profit marked 50.3 billion won, up 20.6 percent on-year, while net profit came to 89.3 billion won. GC Pharma accounted the robust gro

Feb. 9, 2021

LG Hausys expands presence in North American market

LG Hausys will unveil new high-end interior materials at North America’s largest kitchen and bath design trade show, in a move to add fuel to its overseas expansion in the region, officials said Tuesday. The industrial materials affiliate of LG Group will have an online showroom at the Kitchen & Bath Industry Show 2021, a virtual event to run from Tuesday to Friday this week. The new products comprise of five types of engineered stone materials under the Viatera quartz line and s

Feb. 9, 2021

[News Focus] Record earnings, but Kakao, Naver can’t just celebrate

South Korea’s two online giants -- Naver and Kakao -- had the best year ever in 2020, benefiting from the rise of e-commerce and the contactless trend. Yet, as the pain of those less fortunate grows, they may have to part with some of their profit if policymakers push ahead with an unprecedented profit-sharing plan they have vowed to introduce. Kakao, the company behind the country’s near-ubiquitous messaging app KakaoTalk, on Tuesday reported a whopping 120.5 percent on-year jum

Feb. 9, 2021

Race for ‘greenium’ takes off

Major South Korean firms are willingly accepting “green premium,” a price tag for tackling green issues, to accentuate their sustainability efforts. According to SK Innovation Tuesday, its subsidiary SK IE Technology will run its domestic operations 100 percent with renewable energy. SKIET, which manufactures separators for electric vehicle batteries, purchased 180 gigawatt-hours of electricity generated by renewables through the Korea Electric Power Corp.’s Green Premium p

Feb. 9, 2021

Seoul stocks down for 2nd day ahead of options expiration day

South Korean stocks finished lower for a second straight day Tuesday, as uncertainties increased, with investors seeking to take profits ahead of the expiration of stock options. The Korean won rose against the US dollar. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) fell 6.57 points, or 0.21 percent, to close at 3,084.67 points. Trading volume was moderate at about 2.1 billion shares worth some 18.1 trillion won ($16.2 billion), with losers outnumbering gainers 362 to 474. Foreigne

Feb. 9, 2021

[Behind the Wheel] BMW's 4 Series grabs attention with expressive vertical kidney grille

YEONGJONGDO, Incheon -- The second-generation BMW 4 Series has been introduced with a daring look, embracing a vertical kidney grille to show off a new identity. Last week, BMW Korea introduced the renewed BMW 4 Series Coupe and 4 Series Convertible to the Korean market, and presenting the new signature kidney grille that has been made bigger and stretched not to the sides, but vertically. It is the first time the German automaker has introduced the vertical kidney grille to a mass-produced

Feb. 9, 2021

Bitcoin hits record on Tesla’s $1.5b bet

Bitcoin prices hit a record high on Tuesday, as US electric vehicle maker Tesla unveiled it had purchased $1.5 billion in bitcoin. Bitcoin prices inched closer to 50 million won ($44,800) each in Korean exchanges on Tuesday, while exceeding that threshold in overseas exchanges. Bitcoin in South Korean exchanges were being traded at a discount of more than 3 percent on Tuesday, due to different market environments such as regulations and trading volume.  In its latest annual report Monday

Feb. 9, 2021

Seegene found to have exaggerated revenue for 9 years

Seegene, the diagnostics company at the helm of South Korea’s speedy grip on COVID-19 countermeasures, was found to have cooked its books to make it look more profitable, according to the Financial Supervisory Service. The financial watchdog suggested the firm remove a key official involved in the fiscal malpractice. Seegene will be fined, with the amount not yet decided, and assigned a special auditor for the next three years. The official in question had already resigned at the time

Feb. 9, 2021

Top BlackRock researcher sides with hedge funds in GameStop saga

A top researcher of the world’s largest asset manager BlackRock expressed regrets on Tuesday over the retaliation aimed at hedge funds for taking short positions in the United States’ stock market in the GameStop saga. Henny Sender, managing director of the asset manager‘s internal think tank BlackRock Investment Institute, said it was “a sad thing” that retail stock traders had directed their anger at hedge funds. Ensuring hedge funds are given an option to perce

Feb. 9, 2021

Video calls to be free during Lunar New Year amid pandemic

Video calls will be free of charge during the Lunar New Year holiday to encourage virtual family meetings, the ICT ministry said Tuesday, as the country's efforts to curb new coronavirus cases limit in-person contact. The Ministry of Science and ICT said the country's three major telecom operators -- SK Telecom Co., KT Corp. and LG Uplus Corp. -- agreed to not charge for video calls made over the upcoming holiday period, which falls on Feb. 11-14 this year, for all smartphone users in the count

Feb. 9, 2021

Pension funds unload W10.5tr worth of Korean stocks in 2021 so far

South Korean pension funds extended stock sell-offs to a 31st straight session, setting a record selling spree in local market history, data showed Tuesday. The combined net sales of the pension funds came to nearly 10.47 trillion won ($9.38 billion) -- 10.02 trillion won on the main bourse Kospi and 450 billion won on the tech-heavy Kosdaq -- in the period from Jan. 4 to Tuesday, according to the Korea Exchange. Their selling volume stood out even more when compared to other major trading gr

Feb. 9, 2021

FSC to allow Naver, Kakao sell insurance products

The Financial Services Commission said Tuesday it will draft a policy framework this month to allow local platform operators, including Naver and Kakao, to enter the insurance market to expand customer access to digitized financial products. Under the envisioned plan, the financial regulator will ease the current regulations to enable the internet companies to develop and sell micro insurance products, in accordance with its “sandbox” program. The regulatory framework is aimed a

Feb. 9, 2021

Kia to invest W29tr in future mobility, others by 2025

Kia Corp., South Korea's second-biggest carmaker by sales, said Tuesday it will invest 29 trillion won ($26 billion) in car manufacturing facilities and future mobility technologies by 2025. Kia will spend 18.8 trillion won on enhancing profitability in the existing car manufacturing business and 10.1 trillion won on generating business opportunities through investments in future mobility technologies, the company said at this year's CEO Investor Day event. The maker of the K5 sedan and the Te

Feb. 9, 2021

S. Korea's e-commerce market ranks 5th worldwide in 2020 amid pandemic

South Korea's e-commerce market expanded nearly 20 percent in 2020 amid the coronavirus pandemic to rank fifth in the world, a report showed Tuesday. Local e-commerce sales came to $104.1 billion last year, up 19.5 percent from a year earlier, according to the report released by the Korea SMEs and Startups Agency and based on data from market researcher eMarketer. China topped the global e-commerce market list with $2.8 trillion, trailed by the United States with $709.8 billion, Britain with $

Feb. 9, 2021