Seoul shares open higher on eased inflation woes

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Seoul shares open higher on eased inflation woes

Published: 14 Apr. 2023, 09:51 Updated: 14 Apr. 2023, 11:07

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

Stocks opened higher Friday as the latest U.S. economic data raised hopes the Federal Reserve will scale back its hawkish interest rate hikes.

The Kospi rose 11 points, or 0.43 percent, to 2,572.66 in the first 15 minutes of trading.

All three major U.S. stock indexes rallied Thursday after the producer prices slowed more than expected in March from a year earlier. Jobless claims last week rose more than expected, showing that the Fed's efforts to rein in the inflation are working.

Market watchers are increasingly betting that the Fed will begin to signal an end to its aggressive monetary tightening after its next policy meeting in May.

The Fed is widely expected to go ahead with a quarter percentage-point rate hike in the meeting.

In Seoul, financial and IT service stocks traded higher. Naver gained more than 1 percent.

KB Financial rose 2.5 percent, and Hana Financial climbed 2.4 percent.

Samsung Electronics stayed flat.

Posco Holdings was up 2.8 percent.

Battery makers trended lower. LG Energy Solution fell 0.7 percent, and Samsung SDI lost 0.6 percent.

The local currency was trading at 1,302.7 won against the dollar at 9:15 a.m., down 7.7 won from Thursday's close.

Yonhap