The Korea Herald

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Seoul shares open higher on US stock gains

By Yonhap

Published : March 13, 2024 - 09:38

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

South Korean stocks opened slightly higher Wednesday, tracking overnight Wall Street gains driven by megacap tech stocks.

The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index rose 8.85 points, or 0.33 percent, to 2,690.66 in the first 15 minutes of trading.

Overnight, Wall Street logged strong gains as investors shored up Nvidia, Oracle and other big tech stocks despite higher-than-expected February consumer price data.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.61 percent, and the S&P 500 gained 1.12 percent. The Nasdaq Composite added 1.54 percent.

In Seoul, tech shares got off to a good start, with Samsung Electronics adding 0.55 percent and No. 2 chipmaker SK hynix rising 1.09 percent.

Financial shares also went up, with KB Financial surging 3.69 percent and Hana Financial climbing 2.52 percent.

Battery-related shares, however, lost ground as investors took profit from strong gains in the previous session. LG Energy Solution dropped 0.72 percent, and Samsung SDI slipped 0.54 percent.

The local currency was trading at 1,311.70 won against the US dollar, down 0.70 won from the previous session's close. (Yonhap)