South Korean stocks jumped 1.73 percent Thursday, taking a cue from an overnight Wall Street rally after softer-than-expected US inflation data helped ease worries about a drastic rate hike by the Federal Reserve, analysts said. The local currency gained ground against the US dollar. The Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) advanced 42.90 points to 2,523.78. Trading volume was moderate at 4...

Foreign investors became net buyers of South Korean stocks for the first time in six months in July on expectations that the Federal Reserve may slow the pace of monetary tightening, central bank data showed Thursday. Foreigners' stock investment funds recorded a net inflow of $160 million in July, a turnaround from a net outflow of $3.01 billion the previous month, according to the data from th...

South Korea's money supply grew for the third straight month in June on increased deposits amid rising interest rates, central bank data showed Thursday. The country's M2, a key gauge of the money supply, stood at 3,709.3 trillion won ($2.85 trillion) on average in June, up 12 trillion won, or 0.3 percent, from the previous month, according to the preliminary data from the Bank of Korea (BOK). ...

Prime Minister Han Duck-soo held a meeting with relevant authorities to review how the recovery from this week's heavy rain damage has progressed, Han's office said Thursday. Two days of the heaviest rainfall in 80 years battered Seoul and its surrounding areas, killing 11 people, with eight people still remained missing. About 1,000 pieces of heavy equipment have been mobilized for recovery wo...

Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance Co., South Korea's No. 1 non-life insurer, said Thursday its second-quarter earnings rose 9 percent from a year ago thanks to a decreased loss rate. Net income came to 340.8 billion won ($261 million) in the April-June period, compared with 312.6 billion won a year earlier, the company said in a regulatory filing. Operating income expanded 8.4 percent on-year to ...

South Korea's unification ministry on Thursday voiced strong regret over North Korea's claim that its COVID-19 outbreak had originated from the South and its threats of an unspecified retaliatory step. Earlier in the day, Pyongyang's state media reported that leader Kim Jong-un held a national meeting the previous day and declared victory in the campaign against COVID-19. During the session, hi...

GS Retail Co. said Thursday it will close all of its lalavla shops, 17 years after it entered the health and beauty (H&B) store market, due to slumping sales amid the coronavirus pandemic and fierce competition. GS Retail will stop operating its lalavla online shops in September and close down all offline stores of the brand by the end of November, the company said. "GS Retail decided to end ou...

In the midst of their second-half surge, the NC Dinos announced Thursday they've acquired new American pitcher Matt Dermody. Dermody will make $220,000 for the rest of the ongoing Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) season, including a $40,000 signing bonus. Dermody, with 30 big league games to his credit, will replace Wes Parsons, who was released last week after posting a 1-2 record with a 3.56...

South Korea's exports of information and communication technology (ICT) products inched down in July from a year earlier due to a slowdown of global demand in smartphone and computer products, government data showed Thursday. Outbound shipments of ICT products came to $19.34 billion last month, slightly down from $19.48 billion a year earlier, according to the data compiled by the Ministry of Sc...

One of the two trailing candidates in the race for chairmanship of the main opposition Democratic Party said Thursday he is willing to merge candidacies with the other in any way in order to defeat front-runner and former presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung. Reps. Park Yong-jin and Kang Hoon-sik have been trailing Lee by wide margins in the DP leadership race. After four out of 15 primaries, Le...

President Yoon Suk-yeol hosted a dinner for new US Ambassador to South Korea Philip Goldberg and US Forces Korea (USFK) Commander Gen. Paul LaCamera earlier this week, a presidential official said Thursday. Defense Minister Lee Jong-sup, Gen. Kim Seung-kyum, head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and National Security Adviser Kim Sung-han also attended the meeting, which took place Tuesday at the pr...

The chief of South Korea's housing developer has offered to resign, becoming the first previous-government appointed head of a major state-run company who has expressed intent to step down since the Yoon Suk-yeol administration took office in May. Last week, Chief Executive Officer Kim Hyun-jun of Korea Land and Housing Corp. (LH) expressed his intention to step down to the Ministry of Land, Inf...

The undersized underdog South Korea has shocked the handball world, capturing the women's youth championship to cap off an undefeated run to the top. South Korea defeated Denmark 31-28 in the final of the International Handball Federation (IHF) Women's Youth World Championship at Boris Trajkovski Sports Center in Skopje, North Macedonia, on Wednesday (local time). South Korea became the first A...

The Seoul city government has disclosed medium- and long-term flood prevention measures centered on the construction of deep underground rainwater storage facilities in six flood-prone areas. According to the measures announced by Mayor Oh Se-hoon on Wednesday, the city government will spend 1.5 trillion won ($1.15 billion) over the next decade to build six large-scale rainwater storage and drai...

The number of new daily COVID-19 cases in South Korea fell Thursday after reaching a four-month record high the previous day, but new deaths climbed to a three-month high amid the fast spread of a highly contagious omicron subvariant. The country added 137,241 new COVID-19 infections, bringing the total caseload to 20,983,169, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said. Of the n...