The Korea Herald

피터빈트

Seoul shares open higher ahead of Fed meeting

By Yonhap

Published : Dec. 11, 2023 - 09:32

    • Link copied

An electronic board showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index at a dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul on Monday. (Yonhap) An electronic board showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index at a dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul on Monday. (Yonhap)

South Korean stocks opened higher Monday ahead of the Federal Reserve's rate-setting meeting slated for this week.

The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index added 8.58 points, or 0.34 percent, to 2,526.43 in the first 15 minutes of trading.

Investors are awaiting this week's Federal Open Market Committee meeting, with its key rate anticipated to remain steady between 5.25 and 5.50 percent.

In Seoul, tech shares traded higher, with LG Energy Solution adding 0.23 percent and SK hynix rising 0.94 percent. Samsung Electronics remained unchanged from the previous session.

Leading online portal operator Naver gained 0.46 percent, and its smaller rival Kakao moved up 2.51 percent.

Pharmaceutical firms were also among the gainers, with Celltrion adding 4.35 percent and SK Bioscience increasing 1.29 percent.

The local currency was trading at 1,314.60 won against the US dollar, down 7.8 won from the previous session's close. (Yonhap)