Foreign investors have continued to dump shares of Samsung C&T Corp., the fashion and trading arm of South Korea's top conglomerate, since its merger last year, dragging down its share prices, the bourse operator said Wednesday.The foreign ownership at Samsung C&T stood at 7.62 percent as of Tuesday, the lowest level since Sept. 15, when its shares resumed trading on the Seoul bourse, following the merger with then-Cheil Industries to become the group's de facto holding firm, the Korea Exchange

June 1, 2016

South Korea has become a main target of various types of ransomware attacks but it is struggling to find effective countermeasures, industry officials here said Wednesday.Local computer users are increasingly susceptible to such malware, some even using the Korean language.The Korean-language cryptXXX file, which seeks bitcoin, was reported last week and is a more sophisticated scam than the Korean versions of CryptoLocker and Radamant ransomware that infected a number of PCs in 2015.Ransomware,

Technology June 1, 2016

Wine is no longer booze that is consumed only on a red-letter day in South Korea. It is morphing into an alcoholic beverage for the man on the street as more low-priced brands are available and becoming popular.Large discount store chains and wine wholesale stores have chalked up strong growth in sales of wine with a price tag of less than 10,000 won ($8.40) this year as they offer consumers a variety of low-priced brands, industry sources said Wednesday.No. 1 discount chain E-Mart saw such chea

Industry June 1, 2016

South Korea's exports continued to dwindle from a year earlier in May but the rate of drop slowed significantly, the government said Wednesday.Outbound shipments came to $39.78 billion last month, down 6 percent from the same month last year, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.The 6-percent on-year decline marked the slowest rate of drop since the start of the year. In January, exports plunged 18.5 percent, marking the fastest rate of drop since August 2009.Imports, on the o

June 1, 2016

South Korea's consumer prices grew by less than 1 percent in May for the first time in four months, government data showed Wednesday.The country's consumer price index rose 0.8 percent last month from a year earlier, according to the data compiled by Statistics Korea.The index had stayed above the 1 percent level for three straight months since February for the first time in 17 months.From a month earlier, the May figure stayed flat.Core inflation, which excludes volatile oil and food prices, in

June 1, 2016

South Korea's current account surplus dropped significantly from a month earlier in April as its surplus in the goods account narrowed, while the deficit in the service sector widened, central bank data showed Wednesday.The country's current account surplus came to $3.37 billion in April, plunging from a $10.09 billion surplus in the previous month, according to the Bank of Korea.April marked the 50th consecutive month of surplus.However, the April tally marked the lowest level since January 201

June 1, 2016

Several dozen South Korean companies have signed deals worth more than $41 million with African partners, mostly Kenyan firms, the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae said Wednesday.The deals were reached in a meeting between executives of 41 South Korean companies and more than 140 Kenyan firms and other firms from other African countries, including Nigeria and Mozambique in Nairobi on Tuesday.The business meetings were arranged on the occasion of South Korean President Park Geun-hye’s African to

June 1, 2016

South Korea's 115 asset management companies posted a 56.8 percent on-year jump in first-quarter net profit largely driven by an increase in commission income, government data showed Wednesday. Their combined net profit for the three months ended March 31 soared to 138.8 billion won ($117 million) from 88.5 billion won a year earlier, the Financial Supervisory Service said in a statement."Institutional investors injected more of their capital into equity-linked funds offered by local asset manag

Industry June 1, 2016