Seoul stocks open higher after Wall Street gains

SEOUL, Sept. 4 (Yonhap) -- South Korean stocks opened higher Thursday following an overnight tech rally on Wall Street.
The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) added 14.26 points, or 0.45 percent, to 3,198.68 in the first 15 minutes of trading.
U.S. stocks closed mostly higher, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq finishing up more than 1 percent after Google avoided its worst-case penalty in its anti-trust case.
Google's parent company, Alphabet, jumped 9.1 percent, after a federal judge refrained from forcing the tech giant to sell its internet search engine Chrome on monopoly charges.
The weaker-than-expected U.S. job openings, which fell to a 10-month low in July, fueled bets the Federal Reserve will cut rates next month.
In Seoul, most large-cap shares traded higher.
Chipmaker SK hynix advanced 2.1 percent, defense giant Hanwha Aerospace inched up 0.11 percent, and battery maker LG Energy Solution moved up 1.43 percent.
In contrast, top-cap Samsung Electronics slid 0.14 percent, top carmaker Hyundai Motor inched down 0.23 percent, and KB Financial Group retreated 0.54 percent.
The local currency had been trading at 1,388.6 won against the greenback as of 9:15 a.m., up 3.7 won from the previous session's close.

Sumber : yna.co.kr