Seoul shares start higher on Wall Street rally

Published : Feb 23, 2024 - 09:30 Updated : Feb 23, 2024 - 09:30

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 got off to a strong start Friday following an overnight rally on Wall Street.

The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index gained 20.45 points, or 0.77 percent, to 2,684.72 in the first 15 minutes of trading.

In the United States, Nvidia's surprising earnings result pushed up the indexes to new highs, as the S&P 500 jumped 2.11 percent and the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.18 percent. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite also vaulted 2.96 percent.

In Seoul, semiconductor shares were the biggest winners.

Samsung Electronics, the world's No. 1 memory chip maker, rose 0.27 percent and its rival SK hynix, a key supplier for Nvidia, jumped 6.2 percent.

Top oil refiner SK Innovation added 0.24 percent, and leading builder Samsung C&T advanced 3.6 percent.

But No. 1 air carrier Korean Air Lines retreated 0.64 percent, and HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering skidded 0.94 percent.

The local currency was trading at 1,328.1 won against the US dollar, up 0.9 won from the previous session's close. (Yonhap)