Seoul shares open higher on Wall Street gains

South Korean stocks opened higher Thursday, taking a cue from overnight gains on Wall Street.

The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index added 6.71 points, or 0.29 percent, to 2,324.05 in the first 15 minutes of trading.

On Wednesday, US stocks rose to post a five-day winning streak on tech gains. The Dow Jones industrial average was up 0.4 percent to 21,012.42, and the Nasdaq Composite Index gained 0.4 percent to 6,163.02. 

Large caps on the Seoul bourse were mostly bullish, with telecom and chemical shares leading the gains.

Market kingpin Samsung Electronics added 1.37 percent, and chipmaker SK hynix also inched up 0.36 percent.

The local currency was trading at 1,120.2 won against the US dollar as of 9:15 a.m., up 6.6 won from the previous session's close. (Yonhap)