S. Korea's manufacturing sentiment rises for Q2

SEOUL, April 1 (Yonhap) -- South Korean manufacturers' business sentiment rose for the second quarter amid predictions the economy may stabilize in the coming months, a government poll showed Wednesday.

The business survey index (BSI) for manufacturing companies reached 95, up from
61 tallied for the first three months of this year, the report by the Ministry of
Knowledge Economy said.
A BSI reading below 100 means that pessimists outnumber optimists with businesses
expecting conditions to deteriorate compared to the previous quarter.
"Companies expressed lingering concerns about the economy as a whole in the next
three months, although they expected the slide to slow down," said Moon
Sung-wook, head of the ministry's industrial policy division.
The country's future sentiment index has been under the break-even 100 mark since
the third quarter of 2008 and fell to a record low for the January-March period.
The official said companies expected sales to maintain first quarter levels with
the downward spiral in profits, facility investments, operating capacity,
liquidity flow and hiring expected to slow.
The findings, based on surveys conducted on 668 companies nationwide, also showed
companies were upbeat about future sales and exports of semiconductors,
information technology (IT) products, autos and precision machinery.
The BSI for semiconductors and IT products reached 121 and 111, respectively,
with autos and precision machinery topping 107 and 105.
For the first quarter, the report said businesses struggled to cope with the
global economic crisis, though the actual sentiment index reached 65 for a modest
gain above the 61 predicted.
Numbers for electronics, semiconductors, ship building and transportation and
chemicals all made modest gains compared to earlier forecasts.