Stocks open higher Friday in line with overnight surge on Wall Street

Electronic display boards at Hana Bank in central Seoul show stock and foreign exchange markets Friday. [YONHAP]〉

Stocks opened higher Friday, tracking an overnight surge on Wall Street as investors shook off hotter-than-expected inflation data and bet price increases would soon peak.

The Kospi added 34.03 points, or 1.57 percent, to 2,196.90 in the first 15 minutes of trading.

Overnight, Wall Street made a remarkable turnaround to close higher, after plunging significantly earlier in the session, as investors shrugged off persistently higher-than-expected consumer price growth.

U.S. consumer prices rose 0.4 percent in September and 8.2 percent from a year earlier, despite the U.S. Federal Reserve's aggressive monetary tightening policy.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 2.83 percent, and the S&P 500 rose 2.6 percent. The Nasdaq Composite added 2.23 percent.

In Seoul, most big-cap shares opened higher.

Samsung Electronics added 1.45 percent, and SK hynix inched up 0.11 percent.

Hyundai Motor rose 0.61 percent, and its affiliate Kia gained 0.44 percent.

LG Chem went up 1.39 percent, and battery maker LG Energy Solutions added 1.47 percent.

The won was trading at 1,430.10 won against the dollar as of 9:15 a.m., down 1.2 won from the previous session's close.

BY LIM JEONG-WON, YONHAP [lim.jeongwon@joongang.co.kr]