South Korean shares touched a record high as it began trading in 2021, driven by major heavyweights, as more investors bet on a swifter economic recovery.

The won hit its strongest level since mid-June 2018, while the benchmark bond yield fell.

The KOSPI soared 58.72 points, or 2.04 per cent, to 2,932.19 by 0245 GMT, set for a sixth straight gain, after ending 2020 up 30.8 per cent.

South Korea’s exports expanded at their fastest pace in 26 months in December, on robust chip demand and improved global demand, providing additional signals that the recovery is on track despite resurgences in the novel coronavirus.

Chip giants, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, surged as much as 4.2 per cent and 5.9 per cent to their record highs.

Shares of Hyundai Motor Co., the nation’s biggest carmaker, surged to a near four-year high, while its affiliates also jumped on hopes for electric vehicle (EV) boost this year.

South Korean battery maker, SK Innovation’s shares soared as much as 15.5 per cent to their highest since October 2018 on a bullish outlook for EV battery demand and hopes for its construction of a battery factory in Georgia.

Foreigners were net sellers of 35.9 billion won ($33.19 million) worth of shares on the mainboard.

The won was quoted at 1,080.7 per dollar on the onshore settlement platform, 0.52 per cent higher than its previous close and the strongest since June 12, 2018.

In offshore trading, the won was quoted at 1,081.4 per dollar, up 0.3 per cent from the previous day, while in non-deliverable forward trading, its one-month contract was quoted at 1,080.5.

In money and debt markets, March futures on three-year treasury bonds rose 0.02 points to 111.49.

The most liquid three-year Korean treasury bond yield rose by 0.2 basis points to 0.972 per cent.

($1 = 1,081.5900 won) (Reuters/NAN)

Botswana announced on Sunday extension of nighttime curfew up to Jan. 31 following the emergence of a new and more transmissible strain of the Coronavirus (COVID-19).

Minister of Health and Wellness Edwin Dikoloti made the announcement via national television, saying the curfew, enacted by the president on Dec. 23, would continue to be enforced between 20:00 and 04:00 (1800-0200 GMT) daily.

Virus-related risks have increased in Botswana according to evidence submitted by the director of health services, the minister said, stressing that curfew was an effective way of curbing rising coronavirus infections.

Dikoloti that rising COVID-19 cases during the Christmas and New Year holidays showed that people have not been strictly abiding by the set regulations to prevent spreading of the virus. (Xinhua/NAN)

By Harrison Arubu
The 117th U.S. Congress took office on Sunday with Nancy Pelosi securing re-election as Speaker of the House of Representatives with a narrow voting margin.

Pelosi, 80, retained the position after garnering 216 votes to beat her rival, Kevin McCarthy of the Republican Party, who secured 209 votes.

Five fellow Democrats chose not to support Pelosi. While two voted for lawmakers who were not running, three others simply voted “present”, according to ABC news.

This will be the California lawmaker’s 4th term (non-consecutive) as speaker, and she remains the only woman to have ever held the office.

The Democratic Party lost 11 seats in the Nov. 3 elections thus narrowing its majority in the House to 222-212.

Meanwhile, Vice President Mike Pence swore in members of the new Senate, whose control has not been determined due to two pending run-off elections in Georgia.

The Republicans are currently leading with 50-48 seats, and should the Democrats win the two vacant seats on Tuesday, the Vice President, who is the chairman of the senate, becomes a tie-breaking voter.

On Wednesday, the two chambers will hold a joint session to certify the election of President-elect Joe Biden before his inauguration on Jan. 20.

It promises to be the first major test of the new Congress where 11 Republican senators, led by Ted Cruz (Texas), have vowed to vote against Biden’s victory in swing states disputed by Trump.

But in a statement on Sunday, a bipartisan group of 10 senators said the 2020 election was over, and urged their colleagues to certify Biden’s election.

By Harrison Arubu  

President Donald Trump, on Sunday, said the number of COVID-19 cases and deaths in the United States was exaggerated.

In a tweet, Trump blamed the alleged exaggeration on the “ridiculous method of determination” by the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

“The number of cases and deaths of the China Virus is far exaggerated in the United States because of @CDCgov’s ridiculous method of determination compared to other countries, many of whom report, purposely, very inaccurately and low.

“‘When in doubt, call it COVID.’ Fake News!”, the tweet reads.

But health experts, including the country’s top infectious disease professional, Dr Anthony Fauci, quickly countered the president’s claim.

“There’s no running away from the numbers”, Fauci said in an interview with ABC News shortly after Trump’s tweet.

“It’s something that we absolutely got to grasp and get our arms around and turn that inflexion down by very intensive adherence to the public health measures, uniformly, throughout the country, with no exception.

“The deaths are real deaths. All you need to do is go out into the trenches. Go to the hospitals and see what the health care workers are dealing with.

“They are under very stressful situations in many areas of the country. The hospital beds are stretched, people are running out of beds, running out of trained personnel, who are exhausted,” he said.

As of Saturday, the country’s COVID-19 cases had topped 20.4 million with  350,775 deaths, according to John Hopkins University.

The country also set another daily record of 299,087 cases and 2,398 fatalities on Saturday.

Also, reacting to Trump’s claim, U.S. Surgeon General, Jerome Adams, said he had no reason to doubt the country’s Covid-19 fatality data.

Meanwhile, Trump in another tweet on Sunday, complained that the U.S. media was not giving him credit for his work on the pandemic.

“Somehow Dr Fauci is revered by the LameStream Media as such a great professional, having done, they say, such an incredible job.

“Yet, he works for me and the Trump Administration, and I am in no way given any credit for my work. Gee, could this just be more Fake News?”, he said. (NAN)