Seoul shares open higher on tech gains

A screen in Hana Bank's trading room in central Seoul shows stock and foreign exchange markets open on Tuesday. [YONHAP]

Korean stocks opened higher Tuesday as investors picked up tech companies following deep losses in the previous session.

The benchmark Kospi rose 9.22 points, or 0.38 percent, to 2,447.41 in the first 15 minutes of trading.

The gain bucked overnight losses on Wall Street amid rising bond yields and ahead of Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell's remarks on the economy at the Economic Club of Washington.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average inched down 0.1 percent, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite lost 1 percent.

In Seoul, tech shares led the upturn of the index after the previous session's sharp decline on concerns over continued monetary tightening by the United States due to a hotter-than-expected jobs report.

Samsung Electronics rose 0.65 percent, and chipmaker SK hynix grew 0.56 percent.

Battery maker LG Energy Solution inched up 0.19 percent, and Samsung SDI advanced 0.71 percent. LG Chem also increased 0.61 percent.

Bio shares gathered ground, with Samsung Biologics climbing 0.99 percent and Celltrion jumping 1.38 percent.

But automaker Hyundai Motor remained unchanged, and its affiliate Kia lost 0.57 percent.

The local currency was trading at 1,257.45 won against the dollar as of 9:15 a.m., up 4.65 won from the previous session's close.

Yonhap