South Korea’s stock market stayed bullish, with its benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index crossing the 2,200 mark for the first time in six years Wednesday, amid world market rallies and the earnings parade of local corporations. The main bourse closed at 2,207.84 Wednesday, up 0.5 percent, or 10.99 points compared to the previous day. It surpassed the 2,200 mark for the first time after M...

The following is the third in a series of articles breaking down the presidential candidates’ major economic pledges in a simulated question-and-answer format by gathering their answers from official websites, media interviews, public speeches, books and more. The third installment delves into their proposals on increasing taxes and enhancing welfare. -- Ed. South Korea’s tax code is likely to r...

Standard Chartered Bank Korea announced Wednesday it plans to hold a forum dedicated to financial technology at its main branch in Korea on May 17. Michael Gorriz, group chief information officer at the London-based Standard Chartered Bank and Lim Jung-wook, managing director of Startup Alliance in Korea, will deliver keynote speeches at the forum. Under the theme of “Digital Technology Reshapi...

The head of South Korea's central bank called Wednesday for efforts to better reflect the rapidly changing economic reality in the gross domestic product. GDP -- the broadest measure of an economy's performance -- is the total value of goods and services produced within the economy in a given period. It has been used as one of the major indicators in economic policy-making. Still, some critics ...

Bank lending rates on new household loans inched up in March and interest rates paid by banks on new deposits remained unchanged, central bank data showed Wednesday. The average interest rates on fresh household loans extended by local banks came to 3.43 percent in March, up 0.05 percentage point from the previous month, according to the Bank of Korea. The BOK data came amid South Korea's effor...

South Korean stocks traded at a six-year high early Wednesday morning, led by gains in tech companies, chemicals firms and automakers. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index rose 10.01 points, or 0.46 percent, to 2,206.86 as of 11:15 a.m. Market kingpin Samsung Electronics was 0.09 percent down and SK hynix, a major chipmaker, surged 2.19 percent. Hyundai Motor, the No. 1 automaker, m...

A total of 642 listed firms in South Korea have sought the practice of shadow voting this year to meet quorum requirements for approval at their annual meetings of shareholders, sharply up 40 percent from a year ago, data showed Wednesday. Shadow voting, or mirror voting, is a practice under which companies can ask stocks registered with the Korea Securities Depository to vote in the same propor...

South Korea’s benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index topped 2,200 points, for the first time in six years when it opened Wednesday. The main bourse soared 5.52 points, or 0.25 percent, to reach 2,202.37 at 9 a.m. After 36 minutes of trading, it reached 2,206.22, up 9.37 points, or 0.43 percent. The Kospi closed at 2,196.85 Tuesday. This is the first time in six years that Kospi has surp...

South Korea's residential mortgage-backed securitizations slightly rose in the first quarter of this year, but the pace of quarterly growth slowed because of the government's efforts to curb mounting household debt, official data showed Wednesday. State-run Korea Housing Finance Corp. issued 9 trillion won ($8 billion) in mortgage-backed securities during the January-March period, up 300 billion...

South Korean stocks opened higher Wednesday led by gains in tech companies, chemicals firms and automakers. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index rose 7.91 points, or 0.36 percent, to 2,204.76 in the first 15 minutes of trading. On Tuesday, the KOSPI closed at a six-year high, driven by continued foreign buying. Market kingpin Samsung Electronics was 0.09 percent down and SK hynix, a...

South Korea's stock market for venture firms and start-ups plans to ease its listing rules, allowing more small firms to raise funds via the market, the nation's financial regulator said Tuesday. The Korea New Exchange (KONEX) market opened in 2013 for fledgling businesses to raise funds easier via stock sales rather than having to borrow from banks. The Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) deci...

South Korean stocks on Tuesday hit a six-year high, on strong buying from foreign investors with the global stock market rally, brokerage data showed. The nation’s benchmark Kospi closed at 2,196.85, rising by 1.06 percent from the previous session. The figure is the highest since the index closed at 2,200.73 on May 3, 2011, according to the Korea Exchange. The tech-heavy Kosdaq also went up 0.9...

Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries, a shipbuilding affiliate of Hyundai Heavy Industries, has landed a 300 billion won ($265.7 million) pre-initial public offering investment with IMM Private Equity. Under the agreement with IMM PE, HSHI said it will issue 5.36 million new convertible preferred shares, with the private equity firm paying out 300 billion won in total to acquire the stocks at 56,000 w...

Daewoo Engineering & Construction has recorded its largest quarterly operating profit in the company’s history, posting operating profits of roughly 22.1 billion won ($19.5 million) and a net income of 191.9 billion won, according to the company Tuesday. Despite recording operating and net losses in the fourth quarter of last year, Daewoo E&C said the profits achieved in its housing and construc...

Mirae Asset Global Investments, an asset management unit under Mirae Asset Global Investments Group, said its four exchange-traded funds have shown their competitive edge against other ETF products on the Hong Kong Exchange. Mirae Asset’s four leverage and inverse ETFs, or L&I ETFs, that traces Hang Seng index comprised of H-shares on the Hong Kong Exchange, ranked second in terms of the market ...