Seoul shares open lower following Wall Street losses

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Seoul shares open lower following Wall Street losses

Published: 21 Jun. 2023, 10:03

A screen in Hana Bank's trading room in central Seoul shows the stock market close on Tuesday. [YONHAP]

Seoul shares opened lower Wednesday following Wall Street declines overnight. Investors are keeping close tabs on the congressional testimony of U.S. central bank's top official.

The benchmark Kospi slid 6.04 points, or 0.23 percent, to 2,598.87 in the first 15 minutes of trading.

Overnight, all three major U.S. equity indexes ended in negative territory, as a recent market rally paused ahead of U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's congressional testimony slated for Wednesday and Thursday.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.72 percent, the S&P 500 went down 0.47 percent, and the Nasdaq Composite declined 0.16 percent.

Market watchers are looking for clues as to when and if the U.S. central bank will resume its monetary tightening campaign. The Fed has warned more rate hikes could come by the year-end to tame high inflation.

In Seoul, large-cap shares opened mixed.

Samsung Electronics slid 0.42 percent, while SK hynix added 0.52 percent.

LG Energy Solution gained 0.36 percent, and Samsung SDI increased 1.42 percent.

Hyundai Motor retreated 0.51 percent, and Kia fell 0.49 percent.

The local currency was trading at 1,288.8 won against the dollar at 9:15 a.m., up 8.5 won from the previous session's close.

BY SOHN DONG-JOO, YONHAP [[email protected]]