Kospi rises on surge in tech stocks

Screens in Hana Bank's trading room in central Seoul shows the stock market price as it opens on Wednesday. [NEWS1]

Stocks opened slightly higher Wednesday, tracking overnight Wall Street gains driven by megacap tech stocks.

The Kospi rose 8.85 points, or 0.33 percent, to 2,690.66 in the first 15 minutes of trading.

Overnight, Wall Street logged strong gains as investors shored up Nvidia, Oracle and other Big Tech stocks despite higher-than-expected February consumer price data.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.61 percent, and the S&P 500 gained 1.12 percent. The Nasdaq composite added 1.54 percent.

In Seoul, tech shares got off to a good start, with Samsung Electronics adding 0.55 percent and SK hynix rising 1.09 percent.

Financial shares also went up, with KB Financial surging 3.69 percent and Hana Financial climbing 2.52 percent.

Battery-related shares, however, lost ground as investors took profit from strong gains in the previous session. LG Energy Solution dropped 0.72 percent and Samsung SDI slipped 0.54 percent.

The local currency was trading at 1,311.70 won against the dollar, up 0.70 won from the previous session's close.

BY LEE SOO-JUNG, YONHAP [lee.soojung1@joongang.co.kr]