Seoul stocks open higher on Wall Street gains

South Korean stocks opened higher Wednesday, taking a cue from overnight gains in US markets. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) gained 10.1 points, or 0.43 percent, to 2,359.65 in the first 15 minutes of trading. Seoul shares closed up 1.01 percent Tuesday on investors' bargain hunting and the government's record budget proposal for next year. Wall Street ended higher Tuesday on the back of a tech rally. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.7 percent, and the tec

Sept. 2, 2020

New financial centers may emerge amid COVID-19 disruption: APG

The unraveling disruption caused by the novel coronavirus might dent the role of the traditional financial hubs, while surprising candidates are likely to take their place with their own speciallizations in the wake of decentralization playing out due to COVID-19, said APG Asset Management Chief Executive Ronald Wuijster on Tuesday. Surprising candidates could be Busan in South Korea, Casablanca in Morocco and Malaysia‘s Kuala Lumpur, Wuijster said during a speech at the Jeonbuk Internati

Sept. 1, 2020

Shinhan Bank, SKT to roll out 5G-based financial services

Commercial bank Shinhan Bank said Tuesday that it has joined forces with mobile network firm SK Telecom to develop financial services based on 5G mobile edge computing technology. The mobile edge computing, or MEC, is a core 5G technology that helps reduce network latency and process data efficiently by installing small-sized data centers at base stations. Through the partnership, the two companies will launch R&D projects to design advanced financial services based on the 5G technology,

Sept. 1, 2020

Seoul stocks rebound on bargain hunting, massive budget proposal

South Korean shares rebounded Tuesday from a decline of over 1 percent the previous session, largely due to investors' bargain hunting for undervalued heavyweights and the government's record budget proposal for next year. The Korean won rose against the US dollar. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) rose 23.38 points, or 1.01 percent, to close at 2,349.55. Trading volume was high at about 1.1 billion shares worth some 16.1 trillion won ($13.6 billion), with gainers outnu

Sept. 1, 2020

[Market Close-up] Korea seeks to stamp out naked short selling

To keep stock market volatility at bay amid concerns that COVID-19 will continue to affect the market next year, South Korea has extended its temporary ban on short-selling activities of all listed Korean shares to March 2021. And the government is set to toughen penalties against illegal acts such as naked short selling. Financial authorities are also hoping to build a monitoring system that allows them to detect any irregularities in foreign investors‘ borrowing and lending of Korean st

Sept. 1, 2020

KTCU to commit W150b to VC investment

South Korean institutional investor the Korea Teachers’ Credit Union said Tuesday that it planned to commit 150 billion won ($126.8 million) to 10 external partners this year to create blind pool funds for venture investments. KTCU will pick three large venture capital houses, four mid-sized VCs and three rookie VCs. Eligible candidates must be based in Korea. Applications will be accepted by Sept. 24. Selected partners will be announced in late November and will have to complete the i

Sept. 1, 2020

Moon to meet top bankers for ‘New Deal’ fund outline

President Moon Jae-in will meet with top executives of Korea’s five major banking giants on Thursday to discuss measures to promote the government’s social infrastructure investment scheme, dubbed the “New Deal fund,” industry sources said Tuesday. Set up to support the Korean version of the “New Deal” initiative unveiled in July, the envisioned fund will mainly finance digitalization of national infrastructure and provide at least a 3 percent rate of retur

Sept. 1, 2020

Seoul stocks open higher on US tech gains

South Korean shares opened higher Tuesday on overnight tech gains on Wall Street, despite a surge in new coronavirus cases here. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) rose 16.1 points, or 0.69 percent, to 2,342.27 in the first 15 minutes of trading. Trading kicked off bullish after a 1.17 percent plunge in the previous session amid virus woes. Investor sentiment was boosted after the tech-savvy Nasdaq Composite advanced 86.75 points, or 0.76 percent, to close at 11,466.47

Sept. 1, 2020

Seoul stocks plunge over 1% on record-high foreign dumping

South Korean shares dipped more than 1 percent Monday, as foreign sell-offs soared to an all-time high amid the spreading new coronavirus fears. The Korean won fell against the US dollar. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) lost 27.63 points, or 1.17 percent, to close at 2,326.17. Trading volume was high at about 1.6 billion shares worth some 19 trillion won ($16 billion), with gainers outnumbering losers 498 to 350. The index set out strong on the Fed's dovish signal but t

Aug. 31, 2020

Kakao Games likely to issue most successful IPO in Korea

The initial public offering of Kakao Games is likely to be the most successful market debut in South Korea’s history in terms of the number of applicants for its shares, according to market watchers on Monday. In the two-day book building for institutional investors that wrapped up on Thursday, a total of 1,745 domestic and foreign institutional investors participated in the tranche and bid for 11.28 million shares, or 70.49 percent of the total. Competition for stocks by institutional

Aug. 31, 2020

Korean pension funds cushion pandemic impact in H1

South Korea’s pension funds took positive returns in the first half of this year, as they managed to weather the impact of the novel coronavirus on financial markets across the globe, disclosures showed Monday. The National Pension Service, Korea’s largest public pension fund with 752.2 trillion won ($635.5 billion) assets under management, posted a 0.5 percent return Friday as its stock losses were offset by fixed-income assets and alternative investments. By asset classes, from

Aug. 31, 2020

JB Financial launches Vietnam-based brokerage firm JBSV

JB Financial Group said Monday it has launched a brokerage unit through its newly acquired Morgan Stanley Gateway Securities, a midsized brokerage firm headquartered in Hanoi, Vietnam. It has changed the company name to JB Securities Vietnam as part of a move to officially start operations, the group added.  Earlier in April, the banking group paid for its 100 percent stake in MSGS -- previously owned by global investment bank Morgan Stanley -- and recently received final approval from

Aug. 31, 2020

Seoul stocks open sharply higher on economic rebound hopes

South Korean shares opened sharply higher Monday on hopes of an economic rebound, despite the government's implementation of toughened social distancing measures. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) rose 22.97 points, or 0.98 percent, to 2,376.77 in the first 15 minutes of trading. Investor sentiment ran high in the wake of the US Fed Reserve's shift of stance signaling that it will stay accommodative for longer even if US inflation exceeds its target level of 2 percent.

Aug. 31, 2020

[Future of Plastic Cards] Through human-robot collaboration, Hyundai Card seeks digital transformation

This is the second installment in a series of articles, interviews and videos assessing the future of credit cards and the challenges ahead. -- Ed. On the ninth floor of Hyundai Card’s Card Factory, where 5 million plastic credit cards are produced every year, a barista named Billie makes coffee every day. The machine learning-powered robot, trained by award-winning Korean barista Lee Jong-hoon, has his own employee identification number: 410713. While the robot brews coffee, human c

Aug. 30, 2020

Colliers exec advises Korean investors to join debt financing for US warehouses

South Korean institutional investors may see opportunities in the US commercial real estate market as industrial properties in the country garner traction amid the resumption of sales activities, an executive at Colliers International said Thursday. While pointing out that major global blue-chip investors are increasingly tapping into top-tier warehouses in the US, Jeff Black, executive vice president of the company, said Koreans may have room to partner with them as long as they are willing to

Aug. 30, 2020

Top 10 Kospi stocks' market cap approaches 45%

South Korea’s 10 largest stocks trading on the main bourse Kospi are seeing its combined market cap account for 45 percent of Kospi constitutents‘ total market cap as local retail investors flock to the large-caps betting on changes in the domestic industry. According to data by the Korea Exchange, the top 10 large-caps on the Kospi stock market took up 44.78 percent of Kospi’s market cap on average in August, up over 11 percentage points on-year. The figure has been on a co

Aug. 30, 2020

Seoul stocks finish higher on US Fed's dovish signal

South Korean shares closed higher Friday on the US Fed Reserve's dovish gesture, but gains were trimmed due to the heightened social distancing level in the greater Seoul area. The Korean won rose against the US dollar. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) rose 9.35 points, or 0.4 percent, to close at 2,353.8. Trading volume was high at about 1.3 billion shares worth some 15.3 trillion won ($12.9 billion), with gainers outnumbering losers 583 to 253. Foreigners sold a net 2

Aug. 28, 2020

Large-sized apartment prices in Seoul surpasses W2b mark

The market price of large-sized apartments in Seoul surpassed the 2 billion won ($1.69 million) mark in August, reflecting the unsubdued housing price rally in popular areas, industry data showed Friday. According to the monthly housing price trend report by KB Kookmin Bank, the average transaction price for large-sized apartments came to 2.03 billion won, exceeding the milestone for the first time since the bank started tallying such data in 2016. The latest figure was up 171.54 million w

Aug. 28, 2020

Viva Republica raises additional $173m funds to drive new initiative

Viva Republica, operator of mobile fintech platform Toss, said Friday that it has raised $173 million in new funding from multiple investors to drive its new initiative to open a comprehensive financial service application. Investors participating in the fundraise include Aspex Management, Sequoia Capital China, Kleiner Perkins Digital Growth Fund, Altos Ventures, Goodwater Capital, and Greyhound Capital. Despite the pandemic-sparked market turmoil, the latest funding marks the single larges

Aug. 28, 2020

Seoul stocks open higher on US gains

South Korean shares opened higher Friday, taking a cue from overnight gains on Wall Street, despite concerns over the rising new COVID-19 cases at home. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) rose 13.12 points, or 0.56 percent, to 2,357.57 in the first 15 minutes of trading. Stocks traded bullish, after the index plunged 1.05 percent the previous session due to spreading new COVID-19 cases. Investor sentiment strengthened on an overnight speech by Federal Reserve Chairman

Aug. 28, 2020