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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 Tuesday (Yonhap) |
South Korean stocks opened a tad higher Wednesday, led by gains in large-cap shares of techs and chemicals despite losses on Wall Street.
The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index climbed 16.83 points, or 0.65 percent, to 2,590.81 in the first 15 minutes of trading.
On Wall Street, all three major US stock indexes finished lower Tuesday as credit rating agency Moody's downgraded 10 small- and mid-sized US lenders.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.45 percent, and the tech-savvy Nasdaq Composite Index declined 0.79 percent.
In Seoul, market heavyweights pushed up the index, with No. 1 memory chipmaker Samsung Electronics rising 1.78 percent and its rival SK hynix adding 0.08 percent.
Major tech firms Naver and Kakao also advanced 2.91 and 1.74 percent, respectively, continuing their bullish run on strong second-quarter earnings.
Leading chemicals maker LG Chem went up 0.81 percent, and top oil refinery SK Innovation climbed 1.31 percent.
The local currency was trading at 1,317.75 won against the US dollar at 9:15 a.m., down 1.45 won from Monday's close. (Yonhap)
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