Most Popular
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Blinken calls on China to press N. Korea to end its 'dangerous' behavior
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S. Korea, Japan could consider simplified entry agreement: Seoul official
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New celebrity-endorsed therapy for face contouring requires only a pair of rubber bands
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[Weekender] How DDP emerged as an icon of Seoul
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Doctor group's incoming head renews call for govt. to scrap medical school quota hike for dialogue
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Tensions heighten ahead of first president-opposition chief meeting
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[Music in drama] An ode to childhood trauma
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'The Roundup: Punishment' becomes fastest 2024 film to top 2 mln admissions
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New head of doctors' association vows war in case of disadvantage to medical professors
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EU toughens safety rules for online retailer Shein
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Seoul stocks inch up amid valuation pressure, KOSDAQ closes at 21-year high
South Korean stocks inched up on Monday, as investors took to the sidelines amid increased valuation pressure and uncertainties from the Sino-American political friction. The Korean won fell against the US dollar. After choppy trading, the benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) rose 3.71 points, or 0.12 percent, to close at 3,135.59. Trading volume was moderate at about 1 billion shares worth around 13.1 trillion won ($11.6 billion), with gainers outnumbering losers 493 to 350. F
April 12, 2021
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Samsung BioLogics, Kakao and Hyundai Motor compete to join KOSPI's top 5 club
Samsung BioLogics, Kakao and Hyundai Motor are competing to be the fifth-largest company in terms of market capitalization in South Korea. According to Korea Exchange on Monday, Samsung BioLogics is currently holding fifth place on the country’s main bourse Kospi, with a market cap of 51.7 trillion won ($45.9 billion). Kakao and Hyundai Motor closely follow with 49.5 trillion won and 48.2 trillion won, respectively. Competition for the fifth spot has recently escalated after Kakao&rsqu
April 12, 2021
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[News Focus] Coupang, E-mart, Market Kurly join race to offer cheapest price as competition grows
Major e-commerce giants in South Korea are offering the cheapest prices and free delivery to keep an edge over their rivals, as competition grows amid the pandemic-fueled online shopping boom. E-commerce grocer Market Kurly was the latest to ramp up competition on Monday as it announced its “Every Day Low Price” -- a lowest-price guarantee program for some 60 food products. The new measure will see the platform offer products such as rice, instant noodles, fresh vegetables and fru
April 12, 2021
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Pan Ocean signs another bunkering ship deal with Shell
Pan Ocean Co., South Korea's second-largest shipper by sales, said Monday it has signed another deal with global oil giant Shell NA LNG, LLC (Shell) for the lease of a liquefied natural gas (LNG) bunkering ship for six years. Under the $55-million deal, the 18,000-cubic meter LNG bunkering ship to be built by Hyundai Mipo Dockyard Co. will be put into operation for Shell by May 2023, the company said. The deal to be effective by May 2029 has an option to extend the lease period by two years.
April 12, 2021
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Macquarie IM Korea rebranded after local PEF assumes control
Macquarie Investment Management Korea has been rebranded as Feynman Asset Management upon an acquisition deal proposed by a South Korean private equity firm, the company said Monday. The asset management company, which oversees some 1.3 trillion won ($1.2 billion) worth of assets, has named Kim Eun-soo to lead the company. Kim is the former head of the Korean unit of Hong Kong-based Mason Group Holdings. Feynman Invest, a fledgling private equity firm, gained regulatory approval from the Fin
April 12, 2021
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Foreigners to return net buyers after extending sell-offs
Foreign investors remained net sellers of South Korean stocks last month, extending their selling spree for a fourth consecutive month, but some market experts have a positive outlook on their return. “Foreigners’ net purchase has lately occurred to Kospi since the index is still relatively undervalued (compared to other key indexes) amid growing recovery hopes for global economy and business profits,” Daishin Securities analyst Lee Kyung-min wrote in a report Monday. Accord
April 12, 2021
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Posco Q1 operating earnings up 120% to W1.55tr
South Korea's leading steelmaker Posco estimated Monday its first-quarter operating profit hit the highest point in 10 years on robust demand amid global economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. Operating profit for the January-March quarter jumped to 1.55 trillion won ($1.4 billion) from 705.3 billion won during the same period of last year, the company said in a regulatory filing. It marked the highest quarterly operating profit since the steelmaker reported 1.7 trillion won in the se
April 12, 2021
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Banks to tighten grip on loans in Q2 amid pandemic: poll
Banks in South Korea are expected to tighten their lending to households and big companies in the second quarter of this year, as credit risks will remain high amid the pandemic, a central bank poll showed Monday. The Bank of Korea's index measuring the banks' attitude toward fresh loans came to minus 2 for the second quarter. The lower the reading, the more likely banks will tighten their restrictions on lending. A reading below zero means that the number of lenders that will restrict lending
April 12, 2021
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Korea Shipbuilding wins W227b in orders for 3 ships
Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering Co. (KSOE) said Monday it has obtained a combined 227 billion won ($202 million) worth of orders to build three liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) carriers. Under the deal with an Asian company, Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries Co., a unit of KSOE, will deliver two 86,000-cubic meter LPG carriers starting in the first half of 2023, KSOE said. Another deal with an Oceanian company calls for Hyundai Mipo Dockyard Co., another KSOE unit, to deliver a 40,000-
April 12, 2021
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S. Korea's stock market cap gains 3.6% in Q1
South Korea's stock market value grew nearly 4 percent in the first quarter of the year on increased share prices of chemical firms, builders, transportation companies and game makers, a corporate tracker said Monday. The combined market capitalization of 2,385 listed companies in Asia's fourth-largest economy came to 2,411 trillion ($2.15 trillion) as of end-March, up 3.6 percent, or 84 trillion won, from the start of the year, according to CXO Institute. Of the total listed companies, 60 per
April 12, 2021
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Fine dust emissions from coal plants halve on operation cap
Fine dust emissions from coal plants more than halved over the past four-month period compared with two years earlier, data showed Monday, after the country limited their operations during the winter. Local coal plants generated 3,191 tons of fine dust from December last year to March 2021, sharply down from 6,549 tons posted in the same period two years earlier, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. South Korea started regulating the operation of coal power plants in late 2
April 12, 2021
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SK Telecom launches AR app in US
SK Telecom Co., South Korea's largest mobile carrier, said Monday it launched its augmented reality (AR) app in the United States as it seeks widespread adoption of the immersive technology. The mobile carrier said it released its Jump AR app, previously only available in South Korea and Hong Kong, on Google's Play store in the United States, allowing American Android users to experience its mixed reality content, such as taking photos with celebrity avatars. SK Telecom said it also released a
April 12, 2021
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Korean battery makers rally after battery dispute settlement
Shares of two Korean battery makers spiked Monday as they ended a two-year legal dispute over electric vehicle (EV) battery technology, which cleared uncertainty over their businesses. On Sunday, LG Chem-owned LG Energy Solution Ltd. and SK Innovation Co. reached a last-minute settlement in a bitter US trade dispute, just one day before an import ban on SK was to take effect. SK Innovation agreed to pay 2 trillion won ($1.78 billion) in compensation, half in cash and half in royalty, to its bi
April 12, 2021
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Seoul stocks open nearly flat on virus woes
South Korean stocks were little changed Monday amid lingering concerns over virus outbreaks. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) rose 0.24 point, or 0.01 percent, to 3,132.12 points in the first 15 minutes of trading. Stocks came to a muted start after the KOSPI snapped its six-day gaining steak the previous session as valuation pressure increased ahead of the earnings report season. Over the weekend, South Korea's daily new coronavirus cases stayed in the 600s for the thi
April 12, 2021
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Exports grow 24.8% in first 10 days of April
South Korea's exports rose 24.8 percent on-year in the first 10 days of April as shipments of chips and autos remained robust amid an economic recovery from the pandemic, customs data showed Monday. The country's outbound shipments stood at US$15 billion in the April 1-10 period, compared with $12 billion a year earlier, according to the data from the Korea Customs Service. Imports increased 14.8 percent on-year to $16.7 billion, resulting in a trade deficit of $1.7 billion during the cited pe
April 12, 2021
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S. Korea's 2019 tax-GDP ratio lower than major economies
South Korea's tax burden ratio remained unchanged in 2019 from a year earlier and was lower than that for other major economies, a report showed Monday. The country's tax-to-gross domestic product (GDP) ratio came to 20.1 percent in 2019, unchanged from the prior year, according to the report from the Korea Institute of Public Finance. South Korea's figure was 4.8 percentage points lower than the average for the members of the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (
April 12, 2021
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Foreigners remain net sellers of S. Korean stocks in March
Foreign investors unloaded more than 3.5 trillion won ($3.12 billion) worth of South Korean stocks in March to remain net sellers for the fourth consecutive month, data showed Monday. Offshore investors' net selling of local stocks came to 3.51 trillion won last month, up from 3.24 trillion won in net selling in February, according to the data from the Financial Supervisory Service. Foreigners have remained net sellers of South Korean stocks since December. Investors from Asia and the America
April 12, 2021
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Mideast 'early inoculators' to recover by 2022: IMF
DUBAI (AFP) -- The economies of "early inoculating" countries in the Middle East and North Africa will bounce back to pre-pandemic levels next year, the IMF said Sunday, after raising its 2021 MENA growth forecast. The region, which includes the Arab countries and Iran, saw its real GDP growth shrink by 3.4 percent in 2020 due to lower oil prices and sweeping lockdowns to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. But with rapid vaccination campaigns underway particularly in the Gu
April 11, 2021
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SK Innovation reaches W2tr settlement in battery row with LG Energy Solution
South Korean battery rivals LG Energy Solution and SK Innovation reached a 2 trillion won ($1.78 billion) settlement in their two-year-long legal dispute over battery technologies, the two companies announced Sunday. SK will pay 1 trillion won in cash and 1 trillion in royalties to the rival as compensation for its theft of lithium-ion battery technologies. LG, in exchange, will drop all legal action against SK both in Korea and abroad. This allows SK to avert a punishment by a US court that w
April 11, 2021
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Samsung invited to White House meeting on chip shortage
Samsung Electronics, South Korea’s top tech giant, is among 19 global semiconductor manufacturers invited to a White House meeting to be held virtually on Monday. The CEO summit, according to US officials, will discuss a chip supply shortage, especially for those used in vehicles. “On Monday afternoon, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and NEC Director Brian Deese, joined by Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo, will host a virtual CEO Summit on Semiconductor and Supply Chai
April 11, 2021