South Korean stocks opened lower Wednesday as investor sentiment was dented following MSCI's decision to retain the country's emerging market status, analysts said.
The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) moved down 6.81 points, or 0.35 percent, to 1,913.87 in the first 15 minutes of trading.
Shares lost ground across the board, with tech giant Samsung Electronics falling 1.44 percent and leading steelmaker POSCO losing 0.47 percent. Top chipmaker SK hynix shed 0.46 percent.
Stock market participants and financial authorities have expected that an upgrade to a developed market status would expose the local bourse to a wider pool of global equity funds.
The local currency was trading at 1,128.45 won against the U.S. dollar as of 9:15 a.m., up 5.55 won from Tuesday's close. (Yonhap News)
