Contract prices of server DRAM products have begun to fall after staying high for months due to growth of the untact economy following the novel coronavirus outbreak.Market research firm DRAM Exchange said on July 31 that the price of a 32GB DDR4 DRAM for servers posted US$134 in July, down 6.4 perc
The author is an analyst of NH Investment & Securities. She can be reached at hzl.lee@nhqv.com. -- Ed. We raise our TP on Echo Marketing to W60,000. The firm delivered an earnings surprise for 2Q20, enjoying OP of W20.4bn thanks to both CPS-based ad sales and sound earnings at subsidiaries. Marketin
Although Korea's information communication technology (ICT) infrastructure is one of the best in the world, a recent report points out that Korean ICT services market is dominated by foreign companies.The report says that Korea's advanced ICT infrastructure provides a good playground for for
The author is an analyst of NH Investment & Securities. He can be reached at hwdoh@nhqv.com. -- Ed. SEC’s 3Q20 OP is expected to continue increasing to W9.1tn (+12% q-q). Earnings at the IM, display, and CE divisions should improve on IT peak seasonality. But, the semicon division will likely feel a
Samsung Electronics was ranked eighth in “The World's Most Valuable Brands 2020" released by Forbes. It is the highest ranking among Asian brands.Samsung Electronics’ brand value was estimated at US$50.4 billion in 2020, down 5 percent from US$53.1 billion in 2019. With the fall in value, its ra
The authors are strategists of NH Investment & Securities. They can be reached at jaeeun.kim@nhqv.com and yh.kim@nhqv.com, respectively. – Ed. Portfolio strategy: Stock picking during earnings seasonThe current stock market upcycle is likely to be further led by growth stocks. But, with the August e
Intel’s announcement last week that it will delay the release of a 7nm process-based microprocessor by about six months is expected to negatively affect Samsung Electronics, which is the world’s number-one DRAM and NAND flash memory maker.Intel announced on July 23 (local time) that the release date
KT Corp., South Korea's largest telecommunications company, announced on July 22 that it is now streaming live performances by K-pop idols aspiring for global stages to Hong Kong audiences.The new 5G-powered service began under a contract on content sale that KT signed on July 15 with China Mobi
KT will advance into the private cloud center construction and operation business for companies and public institutions by using a public cloud service based on its own internet data center (IDC). As a consequence, KT is expected to square off with system integration (SI) companies that have engaged
The value of settlement for foreign currency stocks purchased by domestic investors tripled in the first half of the year compared with six months ago due to their love of U.S. stocks. Eighty-eight percent of the stocks bought by Korean individual investors were U.S. stocks. They bought 4,818.8 bill
The author is an analyst of KB Securities. He can be reached at drlee@kbfg.com. -- Ed. Software index closes -4.3% DoDThe software index closed July 16 at -4.3% DoD, underperforming the KOSPI (-0.8%) by 3.5pp. The biggest losers were recently the biggest winners, with Naver/Kakao/NCsoft down 4.7%/4.
The Hong Kong national security law which came into effect on July 1 has unexpectedly raised concerns about leakage of Korean internet users’ personal data to China.Naver, Korea's largest portal, has been embroiled in controversy over its handling of personal information. Naver transferred some
The authors are analysts of NH Investment & Securities. They can be reached at jy.lee@nhqv.com. -- Ed. Greater shift towards non-face-to-face commerce could give birth to online retail giantThe Korean New Deal also seeks to foster non-face-to-face businesses, which is to affect retail, platform, and
Nongshim announced on July 14 that sales of its U.S. subsidiary reached an all-time high of an estimated US$164 million in the first half of 2020, up 35 percent from a year earlier.Nongshim's strong business performance in the U.S. market is attributable to brisk sales of its instant noodle prod
amsung Electronics announced on July 8 that it has rounded out its full 2020 Q-series soundbar line-up with the release of two new premium models including HW-Q950T and HW-Q900T.The HW-Q950T delivers the audio quality of 9.1.4-channel, the maximum number of channels for currently available home-thea
The author is an analyst of Shinhan Investment Corp. He can be reached at mj1224@shinhan.com. -- Ed. Sharp growth of shopping service driven by NAVER Pay rewards programNAVER held an online IR presentation through NAVER Band on July 1 to showcase its growth in various indicators. When comparing thre
The authors are analysts of Shinhan Investment Corp. They can be reached at johnsoh@shinhan.com and chank@shinhan.com, respectively. -- Ed. Initiate coverage with BUY for a target price of KRW238,000We initiate coverage of Samsung SDS with BUY for a target price of KRW238,000 with: 1) company-wide o
The author is an analyst of NH Investment & Securities. He can be reached at hwdoh@nhqv.com. -- Ed. Apple unveiled its own PC processor at the recent WWDC, an advance that will empower it with greater control over the development of its PC products. The rapid drive at big-name IT players to develop
Samsung Electronics has appointed Sebastian Seung, a professor at Princeton University who is regarded as one of the world’s most renowned experts in artificial intelligence, as the head of Samsung Research, an integrated research organization of Samsung Electronics.Samsung Research consists of 15 R
The author is an analyst of NH Investment & Securities. He can be reached at hwdoh@nhqv.com. -- Ed. We expect SK Hynix to post 2Q20 OP of W1.5tn (+87% q-q). With time spent on non-face-to-face activities increasing due to Covid-19, data center demand likely rose in 1H20, offsetting sluggish mobile d