Kospi dips to track overnight losses on Wall Street

A screen in Hana Bank's trading room in central Seoul shows the Kospi closing at 2,723.46 points on Wednesday, down 0.03 percent, or 0.72 points, from the previous trading session. [YONHAP]

Stocks opened lower Thursday, tracking overnight losses on Wall Street spooked by hawkish tones in the latest minutes of the U.S. Federal Reserve.

The Kospi shed 15.57 points, or 0.57 percent, to 2,707.89 in the first 15 minutes of trading.

In the United States, S&P 500 fell 0.3 percent, the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.5 percent and the Nasdaq composite went down 0.2 percent as the Fed minutes showed the disappointment of its officials over sticky inflation.

The market also expects the Bank of Korea to freeze its key rate at 3.5 percent for the 11th consecutive session later in the day.

In Seoul, most of the big-cap shares lost ground.

Samsung Electronics retreated 0.39 percent, and leading battery maker LG Energy Solution dropped 0.82 percent.

Top automaker Hyundai Motor plunged 2.71 percent following a rally the previous day, and its smaller affiliate Kia fell 1.51 percent.

Steel giant Posco Holdings shed 0.9 percent, and chemical producer LG Chem lost 0.39 percent.

IT and insurance shares were also weak.

Naver was down 0.93 percent, and Kakao lost 0.98 percent.

KB Financial Group pulled back more than 1 percent, and Hana Financial Group declined 0.64 percent.

SK hynix was one of the few gainers, jumping 1.16 percent on the back of a stronger-than-expected earnings report by U.S. chip giant Nvidia, released after the U.S. stock markets closed.

The local currency was trading at 1,366.80 won against the dollar, up 3.9 won from the previous session's close.

BY CHOI HAE-JIN, YONHAP [choi.haejin@joongang.co.kr]