Seoul shares open higher after US tech gains
An electronic board showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index at a dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul on Friday. (Yonhap)
Seoul shares opened higher Friday following tech gains on Wall Street, although investors remained concerned about a potential slower pace of the Federal Reserve's rate cuts.
The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index rose 25.4 points, or 0.98 percent, to 2,606.43 in the first 15 minutes of trading.
Overnight, US stocks ended mixed. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.33 percent to 42,374.36, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite rose 0.76 percent to 18,415.49.
In Seoul, tech stocks led the gainers.
Market bellwether Samsung Electronics Co. rose 0.2 percent, No. 2 chipmaker SK hynix Inc. jumped 2.9 percent, national flag carrier Korean Air Co. climbed 0.9 percent, and leading battery maker LG Energy Solution Ltd. was up 0.5 percent.
Among decliners, top carmaker Hyundai Motor Co. fell 1.3 percent; Korea Aerospace Industries Co., the country's sole aircraft manufacturer, declined 1.1 percent; and LG Chem Ltd. was down 0.6 percent.
The local currency was trading at 1,380.05 won against the US dollar, up 0.15 won from the previous session. (Yonhap)
