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Lee Yeon-woo

Korea Times Finance Reporter

Lee Yeon-woo is a financial journalist at The Korea Times. Her wide range of reporting includes policies, macroeconomics, stock market, companies and even crypto. She is passionate about connecting the dots in Korean finance and making it easier for foreign nationals to understand. Based on her previous experience as a national reporter, she also has a keen interest in social issues within the sector, including gender equality and ESG. Your tips and insights are always appreciated. You can send them to yanu@koreatimes.co.kr.

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Economy

Hana Securities, Futu open Korean stock market access to foreign investors

Hana Securities said Monday that it has launched trading through omnibus accounts in partnership with Hong Kong-based global financial platform Futu Securities. An omnibus account allows nonresident foreign investors to place and settle orders for Korean stocks through a local brokerage without having to open a separate account in Korea. The system is expected to improve trading convenience for overseas investors and broaden the potential base for capital inflows into the Korean stock market. The launch marks Hana Securities' first omnibus account service offered through a mobile investment platform. After hosting an investment forum for 30 Futu Securities VIP clients in May, Hana Securities began a pilot program in June for customers who had applied in advance. The service was expanded to all customers last Friday. Futu Securities operates the mobile investment platforms Futubull and Moomoo. It has operations in Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Japan, the United States, Australia and New Zealand. As of last year, it had about 3.37 million active accounts, approximately 246 trillion won

Jul 27, 2026By Lee Yeon-woo
Hana Securities, Futu open Korean stock market access to foreign investors
Economy

Koreans can buy SK hynix shares at home. Why pay more for its ADRs?

Korean investors are paying steep premiums for SK hynix's American depositary receipts (ADRs) in New York even though they can buy the chipmaker's shares more cheaply at home, analysts said Monday. There is little economic rationale for Korean investors to buy the ADRs. Since the securities began trading on Nasdaq about two weeks ago, they have commanded a premium of 16 to 51 percent over SK hynix shares listed in Seoul. The tax treatment is also less favorable. Capital gains on locally listed shares are largely tax-free for Korean retail investors, while profits from overseas stocks are subject to a 22 percent capital-gains tax after an annual deduction of 2.5 million won ($1,704). For some individual investors, however, the attraction appears to lie less in valuation than in short-term trading patterns. "When the underlying shares rise, the ADRs follow," one investor wrote in an online community. "They tend to fall less and rebound more strongly than the Seoul-listed shares, and they can be traded at night, when the domestic market is closed." Korean investors bought a net $675.5 millio

Jul 27, 2026By Lee Yeon-woo
Koreans can buy SK hynix shares at home. Why pay more for its ADRs?
Business

Why Chey's divorce settlement is fueling SK Telecom stock rally

SK Telecom has emerged as an unlikely beneficiary of SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won's divorce ruling, as investors bet that his court-ordered cash payout could lead to higher dividends from the telecom company, industry officials said Sunday. Shares of SK Telecom jumped more than 5 percent Friday, even as the benchmark index plunged 5 percent. The rally came after Chey was ordered to pay 944 billion won ($645 million) in cash to his ex-wife. The key question is how Chey will raise such a large sum of cash. As of the end of the second quarter, his shareholdings were valued at 10.83 trillion won, with most of that wealth tied up in a 17.9 percent stake in SK Inc. Through that stake, Chey has maintained control over key affiliates, including SK Telecom and the ownership chain linking SK Square to SK hynix. Market watchers therefore view a stake sale as unlikely, as it could immediately weaken his control over the conglomerate. This brings SK Telecom into focus. In June 2024, when the appeals court handed down its ruling in Chey's divorce case, Hana Securities said SK Telecom had ample capac

Jul 26, 2026By Lee Yeon-woo
Why Chey's divorce settlement is fueling SK Telecom stock rally
Economy

Korean won rebounds from 17-year real-value low

The Korean won has surged to become the best performing major currency against the dollar this month, buoyed by exporter dollar sales and the Bank of Korea's first policy rate increase in three and a half years, the data showed Sunday. The won gained 6.24 percent against the dollar from July 1 through Friday, the biggest advance among 20 major currencies tracked by Yonhap Infomax. The Australian dollar and Russian ruble were the next best performers, each rising 0.9 percent. The rally stands out against a backdrop of broad dollar strength. The U.S. dollar index has remained above 101, as geopolitical tensions between the United States and Iran sustained demand for safe-haven assets. The Korean currency strengthened to 1,458.5 won per dollar in trading that ended at 6 a.m. Saturday, with the exchange rate falling 15.7 won from the previous session. The advance marks a sharp turnaround from June, when the exchange rate touched an intraday high of 1,555.2 won per dollar. The won's inflation-adjusted value fell to its lowest level in more than 17 years. Its real effective exchange rate stood

Jul 26, 2026By Lee Yeon-woo
Korean won rebounds from 17-year real-value low
Cryptocurrency

Korea risks falling behind in digital asset adoption: Circle CSO

Korea’s advanced banking and payments infrastructure may be masking the urgency around digital assets, even as the technology is rapidly emerging as a matter of national interest and broader national security worldwide, a Circle executive said Thursday. While the country can afford to take a cautious approach to regulation, it should not move so slowly that it falls behind in digital asset adoption, he said. Circle is the issuer of USDC, a stablecoin pegged to the U.S. dollar. "The urgency, I believe, isn't widely understood nor shared (in Korea)," Circle Chief Strategy Officer Dante Disparte said at a media briefing in Seoul. He argued that trillions of dollars are already circulating through digital asset products, and the market could expand further as blockchain technology converges with artificial intelligence and autonomous digital agents. "That's where the urgency comes into play," Disparte said. "You could afford to be late to the regulation, but you don't necessarily want to be late to the technology (adoption)." He made the comments ahead of Current Seoul, a private industry ga

Jul 23, 2026By Lee Yeon-woo
Korea risks falling behind in digital asset adoption: Circle CSO
Cryptocurrency

Mirae Asset completes Korbit acquisition, becomes 1st financial group to control crypto exchange

Mirae Asset Financial Group is set to take near-complete control of domestic cryptocurrency exchange Korbit as its affiliate Mirae Asset Consulting acquired a 91.73 percent stake on Wednesday and plans to buy the remaining 5.42 percent on Friday, bringing its ownership to 97.15 percent, company officials said Thursday. The additional share purchase will increase Mirae Asset's holdings in Korbit from about 26.9 million shares to some 28.5 million shares, while its cumulative investment in the cryptocurrency exchange will rise from 133.5 billion won ($91 million) to 141.4 billion won. The acquisition came as Mirae Asset Consulting completed the required regulatory filing procedures on July 9. The Fair Trade Commission determined that the acquisition was unlikely to significantly restrict competition in the market, given Korbit's 0.5 percent share of Korea's cryptocurrency trading market in 2025. The deal marks the first time an affiliate of a financial group has acquired control of a domestic cryptocurrency exchange. As part of its mid- to long-term strategy, Mirae Asset Financial Group ai

Jul 23, 2026By Lee Yeon-woo
Mirae Asset completes Korbit acquisition, becomes 1st financial group to control crypto exchange
Economy

KOSPI fails to reclaim 7,000 as 5% intraday surge fades

The KOSPI failed to reclaim the 7,000 mark, Wednesday, paring most of its gains after surging more than 5 percent, as caution ahead of Alphabet's earnings and concerns over rising oil prices weighed on investor sentiment. The benchmark closed at 6,797.70, up 0.74 percent from the previous session. It opened 4.51 percent higher and extended its gains to the 7,000 level. A buy-side sidecar was triggered at 9:06 a.m., marking the 20th such activation on Korea’s main bourse this year. Foreign investors led the buying spree, purchasing 2.62 trillion won ($1.7 billion) worth of shares. Institutional and retail investors net sold 1.38 trillion won and 1.23 trillion won worth of shares, respectively. The secondary Kosdaq extended its decline, falling 0.3 percent to 751.09. Despite the efforts, the index returned to the level seen before President Lee Jae Myung's inauguration. Investor sentiment toward the semiconductor sector improved overnight after Nvidia announced that its Vera Rubin platform had entered mass production and begun shipping. Reports that TSMC had raised its chip foundry price

Jul 22, 2026By Lee Yeon-woo
KOSPI fails to reclaim 7,000 as 5% intraday surge fades
Economy

Foreign holdings of domestic stocks push up Korea's financial liabilities

A surge in Korean stocks boosted the value of local equities held by foreign investors, swelling the nation's financial liabilities and pushing net financial assets lower for the first time in five years, data showed Wednesday. Net financial assets fell 20.4 percent to 1,271 trillion won ($858 billion) in 2025, a decline of 326 trillion won from a year earlier, according to the national balance sheet released by the Bank of Korea (BOK) and the Ministry of Data and Statistics. It was the biggest drop since the data series began in 2009. Net financial assets are calculated by subtracting financial liabilities, which include Korean equities held by foreign investors, from financial assets, which include overseas assets held by Korean residents. While financial assets rose by 2.79 quadrillion won, or 11.4 percent, to 27.318 quadrillion won, financial liabilities climbed by a larger 3.12 quadrillion won, or 13.6 percent, to 26.047 quadrillion won. "The won-denominated increase in the value of Korean equities held by foreign investors exceeded the increase in overseas equities held by Korean r

Jul 22, 2026By Lee Yeon-woo
Foreign holdings of domestic stocks push up Korea's financial liabilities
Cryptocurrency

Prediction markets boom as Korea grapples with legal gray zone

Wagers placed on an overseas platform over the outcome of Seoul's mayoral election reached $43.68 million in May — even though such betting is illegal in Korea. The case was hardly an isolated incident. Prediction market platforms, which usually operate using stablecoins, allow users to place bets on the outcomes of elections, wars, sporting events and virtually any other matter of public interest. Korea is increasingly part of that trend, with wagers now covering not only Korean politics but also its economy. On Polymarket, the world's largest prediction market platform, the most popular Korea-related wager as of Tuesday was over how high the iShares MSCI South Korea exchange traded-fund (ETF) would climb during the week of July 20. The contract closes Friday, with $18,067 already bet. Although it is difficult to determine how many Koreans use the platform, anecdotal accounts suggest that at least some have begun experimenting with it. One Korean user wrote on an online community that he had tried Polymarket while researching stablecoins and turned $70 into $170 in a single day. He de

Jul 21, 2026By Lee Yeon-woo
Prediction markets boom as Korea grapples with legal gray zone
Economy

Is semiconductor stock rally shifting from Korea to China?

Korean stocks led the global semiconductor rally over the past year, but the momentum is shifting toward China as shares of the country's two biggest chipmakers pull back, analysts said Monday. The TIGER China Semiconductor FACTSET ETF (exchange-traded fund), which tracks large-cap Chinese semiconductor companies, gained 49 percent in the three months through Thursday, making it the best performer among three Korea-listed semiconductor ETFs managed by Mirae Asset Global Investments, according to the Korea Exchange. That compared with a 33.6 percent gain for the TIGER U.S. Philadelphia Semiconductor ETF and 19.9 percent for the Korea-focused TIGER Semiconductor ETF. The Korean fund remained the top performer over the past year, surging 253.3 percent. The China-focused fund rose 154.8 percent, while its U.S. counterpart gained 132.4 percent. Analysts said the shift toward China reflects fresh inflows as Korean semiconductor shares pause after a sharp rally. Funds have sharply flowed out of Samsung Electronics and SK hynix this month even as both companies continue to post record earnings. "

Jul 21, 2026By Lee Yeon-woo
Is semiconductor stock rally shifting from Korea to China?
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