Hanwha Corp. shares banned from trading for one day

The Korea Exchange banned Thursday the trading of Hanwha Corp. shares on Korea’s primary bourse KOSPI Friday, calling it an "insincere" listed company.

The stock regulator held a meeting on public announcement of listed companies and gave Hanwha seven penalty points and imposed a fine of 7 million won (6,200 U.S. dollars).

Hanwha had been warned Feb. 17 of being designated an insincere listed company because the latter made late a public announcement of its executive’s embezzlement charges. At the time the regulator signaled six penalty points.

A source from the exchange said, “Given that the amount of embezzlement is large and has drawn huge public attention, we have decided to add one more penalty point.”

The exchange prohibits stocks of a listed company with more than five penalty points from being traded for one day.

tnf@donga.com