Seoul shares open lower led by tech, financial stocks

Seoul shares opened lower Wednesday as big-cap tech and auto shares started in negative territory. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index fell 5.23 points, or 0.19 percent, to 2,769.16 in the first 15 minutes of trading. Overnight, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.76 percent, while the Nasdaq Composite and S&P 500 gained 1.26 percent and 0.39 percent, respectively, as megacap tech shares gained ground. In Seoul, tech behemoth Samsung Electronics lost 0.87 percent, while No. 2

June 26, 2024

Porsche previews Macan Electric in Korea, arriving later this year

Porsche Korea previewed the brand's first all-electric sport utility vehicle, the Macan Electric, in Korea during a media event at Porsche Studio Songpa in southeastern Seoul on Monday. “We are thrilled to announce that the all-electric Macan will be arriving in Korea later this year. It encapsulates the classic Porsche sports car experience in an electric SUV format with extensive range and practicality for the everyday driver,” said Holger Gerrmann, CEO of Porsche Korea at the

June 26, 2024

Daewoo E&C extends overseas network to spur growth

Daewoo Engineering & Construction Chairman Jung Won-ju is ramping up efforts to expand the Korean builder’s global network for new business opportunities abroad, the company said Tuesday. According to the company, the chairman has made a total of 19 visits to 15 countries since 2022 when the builder was acquired by Jungheung Group. He also hosted nine meetings with foreign delegates visiting Korea during the same period. Over the past years, Jung visited Nigeria, Vietnam, India and Sin

June 25, 2024

Seoul shares close higher on bargain hunting

Seoul shares closed higher Tuesday as investors hunted for bargains, with logistics and automobile shares leading the overall gains. The Korean won gained against the US dollar. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index added 9.66 points, or 0.35 percent, to 2,774.39. Trade volume was moderate at 703.6 million shares worth 11.4 trillion won ($8.2 billion), with gainers outnumbering losers 492 to 375. Foreigners sold a net 143.5 billion won, while individuals offloaded a net 304 billion won

June 25, 2024

Samsung steps up CXL development with Red Hat-certified infrastructure

Samsung Electronics, the world’s largest maker of memory chips, announced Tuesday it built the industry’s first certified Compute Express Link infrastructure, a crucial step not just for its product verification, but also for creating an open-source ecosystem. Samsung Memory Research Center, located in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province, received the certification from Red Hat, the world’s leading open-source solutions provider, which allows the tech giant to directly verify CXL-relat

June 25, 2024

Kakao Bank launches Dollar Box forex service

Kakao Bank, the internet banking arm under Korean tech behemoth Kakao, introduced its new Dollar Box feature on Tuesday, in hopes of bringing the US greenback into users' everyday life. “The most sought-after foreign currency in Korea is the US dollar. It is a key currency that is acknowledged as a safe-haven asset to all,” Oh Bo-hyun, who heads the bank’s foreign exchange division, said at a press event held in southern Seoul. “Through Dollar Box, users can use US d

June 25, 2024

AmCham seminar explores sustainable mobility

The American Chamber of Commerce in Korea hosted the AmCham Automotive Summit 2024 on Tuesday at the Grand Hyatt Seoul to provide insights into the impact of sustainability initiatives on the automotive industry. Partnered with US applied safety science company UL Solutions and automobile manufacturer General Motors, the event brought together key government officials and industry leaders to explore the vast spectrum of changes within the industry. Under the theme, "Future Mobility Technolo

June 25, 2024

LG Uplus launches ixi-GEN telecom-specific AI

LG Uplus, one of the top three telecommunications providers in South Korea, launched its self-developed generative artificial intelligence model ixi-GEN on Tuesday. Ixi-Gen is a small language model that learned LG Uplus’ communication and platform data based on LG AI Research Institute’s Exaone, a multimodal AI model capable of bilingual language processing and the bidirectional generation of language and images, developed in 2021. It can be used quickly and cost-effectively and mit

June 25, 2024

Nexon's Dungeon & Fighter Mobile tops global game sales

South Korean game developer Nexon's mobile role-playing game "Dungeon & Fighter" has topped global mobile game sales, energized by its popularity in China. According to a report released Tuesday by app market research firm Sensor Tower, Dungeon & Fighter recorded around $270 million in Chinese sales over the past month since its May 21 launch there. This figure exceeds the total revenue it accumulated in Korea over two years and three months. Sensor Tower credited the game

June 25, 2024

CJ CheilJedang forays into Amazon Germany for European expansion

CJ CheilJedang, a leading South Korean food company, is signaling European expansion with the recent opening of its Bibigo brand store on Amazon Germany, the company said Tuesday. Opened last month, the brand store is featuring 19 products on Germany’s foremost e-commerce platform. The products include: seaweed snacks, dumplings and Korean sauces. Seaweed snacks, in particular, were launched first to meet the demand for more diverse, healthy snack options in the local market. CJ CheilJedan

June 25, 2024

Seoul shares open higher on autos, chemicals

Seoul shares opened higher Tuesday as investors scooped up auto and chemical shares, despite a slump in technology shares on Wall Street. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index fell 6.69 points, or 0.24 percent, to 2,771.42 in the first 15 minutes of trading. Overnight, the Nasdaq Composite plunged 1.09 percent, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.67 percent. Nvidia, which briefly shot up to become the most valuable firm last week, plunged 6.68 percent, with other technology fi

June 25, 2024

Planned start of stricter rules on household loans to be postponed until September

The financial regulator said Tuesday that the planned implementation of stricter rules on household loans will be postponed until the start of September amid various risk factors facing the financial market. The country was originally set to implement a second phase formula for floating rate stress debt service ratio (DSR) at the start of next month. The government "has decided through consultations with related organizations to implement the second phase DSR steps from Sept. 1," the F

June 25, 2024

Kang Sue-jin's ballet meets public procurement in PPS' new promotional video

South Korea’s government procurement agency said Monday that it has unveiled the emotionally evocative promotional video titled “K-Public Procurement, The Next Stage,” starring the nation's famed ballerina Kang Sue-jin. The video, now available on the Public Procurement Service's official YouTube channel, leverages the artistry of the Korean National Ballet to draw parallels between the elegance of ballet and the seamless integration of public procurement processes.

June 24, 2024

LG Chem CEO to co-chair WEF meeting

LG Chem Vice Chairman and CEO Shin Hak-cheol has been named co-chair of World Economic Forum’s Annual Meetings of New Champions this year, the company said Monday. The World Economic Forum holds the annual meeting in Dalian, China, from Tuesday to Thursday this week, under the title of “Next Frontiers for Growth.” The event will invite over 1,500 high-profile leaders from business, government, civil society and international organizations. Shin, one of the 11 co-chairs of the a

June 24, 2024

Seoul shares down for 2nd day on SK hynix, batteries

Seoul shares closed lower Monday as SK hynix plunged by nearly 5 percent and battery makers remained in negative terrain. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index fell 19.53 points, or 0.7 percent, to 2,764.73. Trade volume was moderate at 580.2 million shares worth 10.8 trillion won ($7.8 billion), with losers outnumbering winners 637 to 233. Foreigners and institutions sold local shares worth 386 billion won and 94.4 billion won, respectively, while retail investors purchased 464.7 bill

June 24, 2024

S-Oil completes digitalization for smart factory systems

S-Oil announced Monday that its advanced smart factory system has become fully operational recently following a three-year digital transformation project. To transform its Onsan plant in Ulsan into a smart facility, S-Oil implemented the S-imoms project, its integrated manufacturing operation management system. The S-imoms project required an investment of approximately 25.5 billion won ($18 million) over three years. S-Oil expects to achieve annual economic benefits of over 20 billion won throu

June 24, 2024

Mirae Asset to launch new covered call ETF for retirees

Mirae Asset Global Investments, Korea’s leading asset management firm, will launch a new covered call exchange-traded fund that generates monthly income to target investors who are seeking steady income to prepare for retirement. The asset manager is to list the Tiger US Nasdaq-100+ 15% Premium Daily Option ETF on the Korea Exchange on Tuesday. The 100 billion won ($72 million) ETF product tracks US large-cap index Nasdaq-100, which consists of the 100 largest nonfinancial companies listed

June 24, 2024

[Herald Interview] C&W’s new facility management service aims to spur Korean growth

Cushman & Wakefield Korea, the local arm of the global commercial real estate services firm, is launching a more integrated facility management service next month to better meet the growing demand from corporate clients. The service, called Integrated Facilities Management or IFM, ranges from janitorial, cleaning and food management to disaster prevention and data centers. “The IFM service was not available in Korea as many of our clients were foreign companies that were renting small-

June 24, 2024

LG Innotek eyes W2tr in automotive sensor sales by 2030

LG Innotek on Monday set an ambitious goal of achieving 2 trillion won ($1.44 billion) in automotive sensor sales by 2030. The company said it will speed up efforts to adopt its cutting-edge optical technology to diverse future mobility and automotive sensing solutions. Its strategic focus will be lidar, the light detection and ranging sensors that are crucial for self-driving vehicles. Earlier this month, the company launched a new team solely dedicated to lidar development immediately under th

June 24, 2024

[Photo News] KT&G Lil Aible revamped

South Korea's leading tobacco maker KT&G said Monday it will start sales of its new heat-not-burn tobacco device Lil Aible 2.0 on Wednesday. The new device comes with a brand-new Pause feature, which allows users to pause the heating process for two minutes. Using its fast charging technology, it takes about 40 minutes to charge up to 50 percent. The preheating time has also been reduced by 20 percent compared to the previous model. (KT&G)

June 24, 2024