Seoul shares open lower on U.S. tapering woes

South Korean stocks opened lower Friday, as investors were unnerved by predictions that the U.S. might start trimming the stimulus sooner following the latest growth data, analysts said.

The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) fell 14.31 points, or 0.71 percent, to 1,989.73 in the first 15 minutes of trading.

Shares lost ground across the board, with market behemoth Samsung Electronics sliding 1.04 percent, with No. 2 lender KB Financial dipping 1.6 percent.

Washington said the previous day that its gross domestic product expanded 2.8 percent on-year in the third quarter, beating the market consensus of 2.0 percent.

The latest data caused Wall Street to fall on fear that it will give the Federal Reserve fresh grounds to start scaling back the bond purchases.

The local currency was trading at 1,063.95 won against the U.S. dollar as of 9:15 a.m., down 2.55 won from Thursday's close. (Yonhap News)