Seoul shares open tad higher despite Wall Street losses

SEOUL, June 16 (Yonhap) -- South Korean stocks opened slightly higher on Friday despite overnight Wall Street losses, analysts said.

The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index inched up 2.29 points, or 0.1 percent, to 2,363.94 in the first 15 minutes of trading.

On Thursday (local time), U.S. stocks dropped, with the S&P 500 Index falling 0.2 percent, led by drops in tech shares. The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index retreated 0.4 percent.

Large-cap stocks on the Seoul bourse were mixed across the board. Market bellwether Samsung Electronics added 0.22 percent, and global chipmaker SK hynix was up 1.49 percent. Naver, the operator of the country's top Internet portal, meanwhile, lost 0.34 percent.

The local currency was trading at 1,129 won against the U.S. dollar, down 4.9 won from the previous session's close.

khj@yna.co.kr
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