The Seoul Main Customs of the Korea Customs Service announced on April 27 that it detected 61 foreigners who illegally purchased apartments in Seoul by investigating 500 persons who bought apartments priced at over 500 million won in Seoul for the past three years with the source of the money unclea
The Bank of Korea announced on April 19 that residents’ foreign currency deposits in foreign exchange banks increased by US$2.67 billion to US$92.7 billion last month.The deposits can be defined as those owned by local individuals and companies, foreigners staying for at least six months in South Ko
The authors are analysts of Shinhan Investment Corp. They can be reached at jwsung79@shinhan.com and hanny.lee@shinhan.com, respectively. -- Ed. 1Q21 preview: Consolidated operating loss of KRW52.4bn (TR YoY)Grand Korea Leisure suspended operations at its two casinos in Seoul from 24 November 2020 t
Much attention is being paid to how the seasonal factor of large-scale dividend remittance by foreigners will affect South Korea’s current account balance and foreign exchange rate.On April 12, the won-dollar exchange rate rose 3.7 won to close at 1,124.9 won per U.S. dollar. The rate rose for the t
The Bank of Korea announced on April 7 that South Korea’s current account surplus was US$8.03 billion in February this year, the surplus increased US$1.62 billion compared to February 2020, and South Korea posted a surplus for the 10th consecutive month.The goods account surplus decreased from US$6.
The authors are analysts of Shinhan Investment Corp. They can be reached at jwsung79@shinhan.com and hanny.lee@shinhan.com, respectively. -- Ed. 1Q21 preview: Consolidated operating loss of KRW14.9bn (TR YoY)Paradise is expected to have posted consolidated operating loss of KRW14.9bn (negative swing
The authors are derivatives/ETF analysts of Shinhan Investment Corp. They can be reached at seonghun.k@shinhan.com and buykkang@shinhan.com, respectively. – Ed. Focus on stocks expected to join MSCI Korea IndexThe Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) is set to announce the results of the May
The Bank of Korea announced on March 9 that South Korea posted a current account surplus of US$7.06 billion in January this year whereas the surplus stood at US$0.58 billion in January 2020. The surplus increased year on year for the eighth consecutive month and the surplus recorded in January this
The Korea Financial Investment Association announced on March 9 that the domestic bond issuance increased 11.3 trillion won and the total outstanding issuance was 2,317.4 trillion won last month. “The net issuance of government, corporate and financial bonds increased by approximately 31.8 trillion
The authors are analysts of Shinhan Investment Corp. They can be reached at jwsung79@shinhan.com and hanny.lee@shinhan.com, respectively. -- Ed. January duty-free sales to foreigners highest since COVID-19 outbreakKorea’s overall duty-free sales came in at USD1.26bn (-27.7% YoY, +16.5% QoQ) in Janua
The South Korean government announced on March 2 that foreign workers in rural areas will be covered as regional national health insurance policyholders at the same time as entry instead of in six months from entry and their premium will be subsidized by up to 50 percent.In the current system, most
The Bank of Korea announced on Feb. 18 that residents’ foreign currency deposits in foreign exchange banks decreased by US$4.82 billion to US$89.38 billion last month. The deposits can be defined as those owned by local individuals and companies, foreigners staying for at least six months in South K
Korea Securities Depository announced on Feb. 8 that a computerized system for securities lending and borrowing and original contract storage for borrowers would be introduced as part of the government’s plan against naked short selling.The new system is to enhance the transparency of securities len
Naver Cloud (CEO Park Won-ki) announced on Feb. 8 that it has launched CLOVA Dubbing, a web-based editing tool that allows users to download user-inputted text as a sound source and video by synthesizing AI voices into videos or PDF files.Clova Dubbing synthesizes the user-entered text into an AI vo
Whether to extend the ban on short selling will be decided in February. The ban is slated to come to an end on March 15. Controversy is heating up over the resumption of short selling amid opposition from politicians and individual investors who assert that short selling only gives advantages to for
The Ministry of Economy and Finance is planning to announce foreign exchange risk management measures within this month for a closer monitoring of overseas investment by non-bank financial institutions such as insurance companies.Since the global financial crisis of 2008, the South Korean government
The author is an analyst of Shinhan Investment Corp. He can be reached at sejonghong@shinhan.com. -- Ed. 4Q20 consolidated OP estimated at KRW65.7bn (+27.5% YoY)Cheil Worldwide is expected to post consolidated gross profit of KRW322bn (+0.6% YoY) and operating profit of KRW65.7bn (+27.5% YoY) for 4Q
Statistics Korea announced on Dec. 21 that the number of unemployed foreigners in South Korea increased 38.2 percent to 69,500 this year, the largest since records began in 2012. The unemployment rate rose from 5.5 percent to 7.6 percent.The number of employed foreigners in South Korea fell 1.8 perc
The Financial Supervisory Service announced on Dec. 7 that foreign investors recorded a net buy of 6,125 billion won in the South Korean stock market last month. It is the largest since September 2013, when the amount totaled 8.3 trillion won. The net buy is divided into 5,857 billion won in KOSPI a
South Korea’s current account surplus topped US$10 billion for two months in a row and reached the third-highest level in history. The surplus continued for the sixth consecutive month. Although its exports showed a month-on-month decrease, its imports showed a steeper decrease to result in the surp