Amid expectations of surging global demand in the battery separators market, SK ie technology has gained keen attention from investors both at home and abroad ahead of its market debut next month, setting a record Monday in South Korean initial public offering market history. The battery materials subsidiary under SK Innovation wrapped up its two-day book building process Friday. While instituti...

Citigroup’s decision to withdraw from retail banking in South Korea has sparked concerns over the possibility of other global financial companies following suit. Korea has nurtured ambitions to become Asia’s next financial hub for nearly 20 years, but in that time, the presence of foreign banks has not grown, but weakened. Citi’s choice of Korea as one of 13 markets to exit suggests that trend i...

South Korean securities firms, which are infamous for their rigid company culture, are competitively setting up their own digital platforms and seeking partnerships with rising fintech startups. Conventional stockbrokers are doing this for one reason -- they hope to do business in the MyData segment. MyData is one of the government’s marquee projects to reshape the outdated financial sector in r...

SK ie technology, a wholly owned battery materials subsidiary under SK Innovation, said Thursday that it was looking to raise nearly 2.25 trillion won ($2.02 billion) in fresh funds via an initial public offering on South Korea’s main bourse next month. While it plans to float about 21.4 million shares on the Kospi market in a price band of 78,000-105,000 won, some 8.55 million new shares are se...

South Korea’s benchmark Kospi hit a fresh high at Tuesday’s closing, with foreign and institutional investors returning to the market on hopes of strong corporate earnings in the first quarter. The Kospi closed at 3,220.70, breaking its previous record and ending a three-month adjustment. It was only the second time the Kospi had closed above the 3,200-point threshold. The index closed at 3,208....

South Korea’s benchmark Kospi hovered around the 3,200-point threshold Monday amid hopes of a global economic recovery, raising hopes of a bounce back to over 3,200 points at the closing bell for the first time in nearly three months. Local market watchers also presented a positive outlook on the index’s upward moves, with some suggesting that it might touch 3,300 points soon. The Kospi closed a...

The National Pension Service, South Korea’s largest institutional investor, has gained nearly 2 trillion won ($1.79 billion) worth of profits after selling a 1.2 percent stake in top-cap Samsung Electronics over the past year and a half, data showed Sunday. According to DART, the Financial Supervisory Service’s electronic disclosure board, the NPS’ stake has dropped to 9.99 percent, now owning s...

South Korea’s top mobile messenger operator, Kakao, replaced Samsung Biologics as the No. 6 company on the Kospi in terms of market capitalization Thursday, a day after its stock split. Shares of Kakao, after a 5-for-1 stock split, jumped 7.59 percent to 120,500 won ($108.07) at the closing bell, lifting the company’s market cap to 53.48 trillion won. The price of Kakao stocks with lowered face...

The head of South Korea’s financial regulator said Thursday that he expects to see a greater inflow of foreign capital to the nation’s stock market with the reactivation of short selling activities next month. “Resumption of short-selling signifies that the market is going back to normalization and (I hope) foreigners to return to the market,” said Financial Services Commission Chairman Eun Sung...

Shares of Namyang Dairy Products, one of South Korea’s major dairy firms, soared in intraday trading on Wednesday as the company claimed that its own yogurt lineup Bulgaris can reduce the infection risk of COVID-19. The dairy company’s shares once spiked up 28.68 percent to 489,000 won ($437.39) in the early morning trading session, but plunged 5.13 percent to close at 360,500 won. Within some ...

South Korean brokerage firm Mirae Asset Securities is betting big on global startups going public on US stock markets. Chinese ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing recently submitted its regulatory filing to the US Securities and Exchange Commission for its debut on the New York Stock Exchange. According to Bloomberg, the company’s estimated valuation stands at nearly $100 billion. When Mirae Asset i...

Ahead of the South Korean government implementing a partial reactivation of short selling from May 3, local retail investors have voiced concerns over possible losses in battles with sophisticated hedge funds. The resumption, however, is likely to have a limited impact on the local indexes, global investment bank Morgan Stanley said Tuesday. “We view a sharp market correction as unlikely and ex...

South Korea’s tech-heavy Kosdaq ended at a two-decade high on Monday, surpassing a 1,000-point threshold on rallies of secondary battery and bio shares. The secondary index ended trading at 1,000.65 points, up 11.26 points or 1.14 percent, from the previous session’s close. Both foreign and institutional investors purchased a net 36.2 billion won ($32.17 million) and 100 million won, respective...

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 pr...

South Korea’s National Pension Service has adjusted its rules to raise the strategic asset distribution limit for domestic stock holdings by 1 percentage point, Minister of Health and Welfare Kwon Deok-cheol said Friday. “The proportion of strategic asset allocation limit for domestic equities has been increased from the current 2 percent to 3 percent,” said Kwon, who also heads the state pensio...