Seoul shares open lower amid rate concerns

A screen in Hana Bank's trading room in central Seoul shows stock and foreign exchange markets close on Thursday. [NEWS1]

Stocks opened lower Friday, despite Wall Street gains overnight in hopes that the U.S. Federal Reserve is nearing the end of its rate hike cycle.

The benchmark Kospi dropped 4.88 points, or 0.2 percent, to 2,419.6 in the first 15 minutes of trading.

Overnight, U.S. shares finished higher after traders placed their bets on the Fed possibly winding down its aggressive monetary tightening soon amid recession woes, after its nine consecutive rate hikes in the span of a year to fight inflation.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.23 percent, the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite added 1.01 percent, and the S&P 500 inched up 0.3 percent.

In Seoul, most big-cap shares opened mixed amid global market uncertainty stemming from the Fed's future path of interest rates.

Samsung Electronics climbed 0.64 percent, and SK hynix gained 1.69 percent.

LG Energy Solution declined 1.22 percent, and Samsung SDI went down 2.41 percent. LG Chem also inched down 1.54 percent.

Carmakers also lost ground, with Hyundai Motor dipping 0.5 percent and its affiliate Kia shedding 0.38 percent.

The local currency was trading at 1,287.2 won against the dollar as of 9:15 a.m., up 8.9 won from the previous session's close.

Yonhap