The korea economic daily

Once high-flying bio stock hit by financial fraud scandal

Helixmith Co., once No.2 stock on the junior Kosdaq market, has lost 40% in the past week following its disclosure of $233 million investment in high-...

Korean won hits 19-month high; all eyes on US election

The South Korean won is riding high against the dollar amid expectations of a new US stimulus package, as presidential candidate Joe Biden’s lik...

COVID-19 pandemic slams Korea’s job market; elderly workers rise

Hit hard by the fallout of the coronavirus pandemic, South Korea lost about 392,000 jobs in September, with the number of employed slipping for the se...

Credit Suisse says Korean stocks remain cheap

South Korean bourses may have been Asia’s top performers since global stock markets hit troughs in March, but the country remains Credit Suisse'...

Bank of Korea keeps rate steady at record low; signaling no further action

The Bank of Korea has left its policy rate unchanged at a record low of 0.5% as was widely expected, citing a slow economic recovery amid the ongoing ...

Top Korean travel platform Yanolja to join startups lining up for IPOs

South Korea’s largest travel platform Yanolja is planning to list on the domestic stock market in 2022, paving the way for Singapore’s GIC...

Doosan Infracore to issue $85.4 mn in bonds; stake sale bidding now Sept. 28

Doosan Infracore Co., South Korea’s top construction equipment maker, plans to sell 100 billion won ($85.4 million) in corporate bonds to raise ...

Korean regulator mulls flat-rate underwriting fees to cool IPO hype

South Korean financial regulators are considering introducing flat-rate underwriting fees for initial public offerings, in a move seen aimed at coolin...

Dust over Tesla settles; Morgan Stanley upgrades LG Chem to ‘overweight’

South Korea’s LG Chem Ltd. is an attractive stock with 27% upside potential on removal of uncertainty over its battery business spin-off and Tes...

S. Korean automakers rise despite stronger Korean currency

Shares of Hyundai Motor Co. and Kia Motors Corp. are rising despite the rising trend in the value of the Korean won versus the dollar, which usually w...

Korean won rebounds to pre-pandemic level; more gains seen until US election

The South Korean won leapt to its highest close in eight months against the dollar on Sept. 18, powered by foreign investors’ week-long stock bu...

S. Korea’s big companies rattled by retail investors’ growing influence

South Korea’s big companies such as Samsung, LG and Hyundai often make shareholder-friendly moves to accommodate institutional investors, who fl...

Hyundai Capital sells $2.5 bn dollar bond; Tongyang Life issues $300 mn perpetual bond

Hyundai Capital America, the US capital arm of Hyundai Motor Group, has issued $2.5 billion worth of global bonds, the largest amount for a local comp...

Korea’s big data companies eye IPOs as investors flush with cash

Tech investors are set to be deluged with initial public offerings as South Korea’s big data companies are pushing to list their shares amid a d...

Kakao Games shares hit upper limit for two consecutive days, further fueling IPO hype

Kakao Games Corp. shares reached the daily upper limit for the second consecutive day on Sept. 11, pushing the company to the third place on KOSDAQ wi...

South Korea sells $827 mn worth of euro-currency bonds with negative yield

The South Korean government has issued euro-denominated bonds worth 700 million euros ($827 million) at a negative interest rate, becoming the first n...

BOK to buy $4.2 bn in state bonds by year-end to stabilize debt market

The Bank of Korea will buy state bonds worth 5 trillion won ($4.2 billion) directly from the market by the end of this year to stabilize the local deb...

Korea’s major companies’ Q2 overseas sales drop 20% due to pandemic

South Korea’s top 100 companies saw their overseas sales shrink by a fifth in the second quarter from the year-earlier period, weighed by the fa...

Longer-dated govt bond yields creep up as investors foresee more treasury sales

South Korea’s government bond yields are heading north despite the gloomy business outlook as institutional investors expect more government-iss...

Sale of Korea’s bank debentures hits all-time high as capital reserves shrink

Bond issuance by South Korean banks has risen to a record high as banks move to secure adequate capital to ride out any short-term liquidity disruptio...

Korean exports remain sluggish in Q2 as GDP sees worst contraction since 2008

South Korea's real gross domestic product contracted 3.2% quarter on quarter, posting 448.2 trillion won ($378.1 billion) in Q2, according to the Bank...

Korean banks’ Q2 capital ratio drops for third straight quarter

The average capital adequacy ratio of South Korean banks declined in the April-June period for the third consecutive quarter, weighed by rising corpor...

SK Hynix to issue $500 mn in dollar bonds to brace for protracted slowdown

South Korea’s SK Hynix Inc. plans to raise $500 million by issuing dollar-denominated bonds in October to gird itself for a protracted industry ...

Korean retail investors attracted to US growth stocks, now 10th Tesla owners

South Korean retail investors, who turn their eyes overseas for higher returns, are heavily buying into US growth stocks amid growing fears of tech st...

K-pop market remains bullish as entertainment shares soar

South Korean entertainment giants, SM Entertainment Co, YG Entertainment Inc, and JYP Entertainment Corporation, are sitting pretty as their share pri...

Korean refiners remain gloomy despite pickup in gasoline refining margins

While Asia’s benchmark refining margin has risen to its highest level in five months, South Korea’s major oil refiners are still concerned...

Korean govt extends ban on short selling to appease retail investors

The South Korean government has decided to extend the ban on short selling for another six months -- from September 16 to March 15, 2021 -- prompted b...

Bank of Korea sees 2020 GDP contract 1.3%; keeps base rate on hold

The Bank of Korea revised down its 2020 growth forecast for the South Korean economy to a negative 1.3% from the previous 0.2% contraction on August 2...

Bank of Korea to sharply lower 2020 GDP forecast: governor

The South Korean economy is expected to shrink at a steeper rate than the expected 0.2% this year, and the Bank of Korea (BOK) will sharply revise dow...

South Korean govt likely to extend short-selling ban on resurging coronavirus concerns

The South Korean government is leaning toward extending the six-month ban on short selling amid a climate of economic uncertainty, said Finance Minist...