Korean shares open lower Thursday on U.S. losses

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Korean shares open lower Thursday on U.S. losses

Published: 09 Feb. 2023, 09:46 Updated: 09 Feb. 2023, 10:00

A screen in Hana Bank's trading room in central Seoul shows stock and foreign exchange markets open on Thursday. [News1]

Korean stocks opened lower Thursday, driven by big-cap tech losses, as U.S. shares ended lower on concerns over the Federal Reserve's continued monetary tightening.

The benchmark Kospi shed 15.03 points, or 0.61 percent, to 2,468.61 in the first 15 minutes of trading.

Overnight, U.S. shares ended lower after Fed Governor Christopher Waller said he's "prepared for a longer fight to get inflation down" and interest rates need to remain high for some time.

New York Fed President John Williams also said the U.S. central bank needs to maintain "restrictive" rates for a few years to curb inflation.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.61 percent, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite tumbled 1.68 percent.

In Seoul, most top-cap shares opened lower.

Samsung Electronics fell 0.65 percent, and chipmaker SK hynix sank 2 percent.

Battery maker LG Energy Solution went down 0.92 percent, and Samsung SDI inched down 0.14 percent. LG Chem also shed 0.45 percent.

Bio shares lost ground, with Samsung Biologics sliding 0.25 percent and Celltrion falling 0.54 percent.

Automaker Hyundai Motor decreased 0.35 percent, and its affiliate Kia lost 0.42 percent.

But financial firms rose. KB Financial Group added 0.9 percent, and Hana Financial grew 0.41 percent.

The local currency was trading at 1,262.75 won against the dollar as of 9:15 a.m., up 2.65 won from the previous session's close.

Yonhap