The Korea Herald

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Seoul shares open higher on tech gains

By Yonhap

Published : Feb. 24, 2023 - 09:28

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

South Korean stocks opened slightly higher Friday, tracking Wall Street gains, as big-cap tech shares gathered ground.

The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index added 6.34 points, or 0.26 percent, to 2,445.43 in the first 15 minutes of trading.

Overnight, US shares ended higher following a recent rout amid lingering uncertainties over the United States' monetary policy path to curb inflation. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.33 percent, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite advanced 0.72 percent.

In Seoul, tech blue chips led the upturn of the index.

Market bellwether Samsung Electronics rose 0.48 percent, and chip giant SK hynix grew 0.86 percent.

Leading battery maker LG Energy Solution went up 0.2 percent, and Samsung SDI advanced 0.73 percent.

LG Chem increased 0.45 percent.

Top automaker Hyundai Motor rose 0.34 percent, and its affiliate Kia gained 0.39 percent.

But major bio shares lost ground, with Samsung Biologics losing 0.63 percent and Celltrion falling 0.6 percent.

Among decliners, top steelmaker Posco Holdings sank 0.9 percent.

The local currency was trading at 1,297.45 won against the US dollar as of 9:15 a.m., down 0.35 won from the previous session's close. (Yonhap)