-- Wise iTech (KOSDAQ:065370) secured the second phase of the Bank of Korea's IT outsourcing program from LG CNS(KRX:064400), according to a Monday filing with the Korea Exchange.
The contract, valued at 3.93 billion won, is valid till April 30, 2029.
Shares of LG CNS rose more than 1% at market close.
Led by large tech-rallies in Seoul and Taiwan, Asian stock markets gained ground on Monday in holiday-thinned trading.Hong Kong also finished in the green, while Bangkok, Shanghai and Tokyo remained shuttered.After recent AI-triggered rallies on Wall Street, Seoul's KOSPI Index rose 5.1% to strike a fresh all-time zenith, led by semiconductor giants Samsung Electronics, up 5.4%, and SJ Hynix, up 12.5%.Taiwan's TWSE Index rose 4.6% on the day, also hitting new record high, led by 6.6% rise in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing shares.In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index opened higher and held ground, finishing up 1.2% as traders embraced tech and property shares.The broad gauge Hang Seng rose 319.25 to 26,095.88, as gaining issues outnumbered losers 71 to 19. The Hang Seng TECH Index gained 2.2% on the day, while the Mainland Properties Index rose 2.1%.Leading the upside was smart-phone and EV-maker Xiaomi, gaining 6.8%, while Macau gaming-house Galaxy Entertainment declined 2.8%.On the other regional exchanges, the Australian ASX 200 declined 0.4%; the Singapore Straits Times Index rose 0.2%, and Mumbai's Sensex was up 0.5%.In economic news, the seasonally adjusted South Korea manufacturing purchasing managers index (PMI) logged at 53.6 in April, up from 52.6 in March, and striking further above the 50-mark that separates growth from contraction, said S&P Global.
The Canadian Labour Force Survey (LFS) for April will be released on Friday and it will be the week's macroeconomic focus, said RBC.The bank expects employment to remain broadly consistent with a gradual improvement in per-worker conditions after controlling for an unprecedented pullback in labor force growth.RBC predicts about 25,000 jobs were added in April, following losses in January and February that only partially recovered in March.That would still leave employment down 70,000 in the first four months of 2026, but would also likely still be enough to push the unemployment rate down to 6.6% from 6.7% -- further below the recent 7.1% peak in August and September 2025, stated the bank.Aggressive federal immigration caps and an aging population have sharply lowered the amount of employment growth needed to push the unemployment rate -- the better indicator of per-worker labor conditions -- lower, pointed out RBC.The labor market isn't yet strong, with the unemployment rate declines still being "modest" to date and the bank doesn't estimate a spike in wages in March to be repeated in April.However, RBC's base case projections assume further gradual improvements this year with the unemployment rate edging down to 6.3% by year's end, even with job growth softer than historically normal.