Kospi falls 0.88% as tech stocks stumble

A screen in Hana Bank's trading room in central Seoul shows the Kospi closing at 2,792.05 points on Wednesday, up 0.64 percent, or 17.66 points, from the previous trading session. [YONHAP]

Shares opened lower Thursday despite overnight gains on Wall Street as big-cap tech stocks started off weak.

The Kospi fell 24.58 points, or 0.88 percent, to 2,767.47 in the first 15 minutes of trading.

Overnight, Wall Street closed higher, mainly driven by the performance of megacap tech shares.

But Micron Technology declined after earnings results failed to meet investors' expectations.

In Seoul, Samsung Electronics lost 0.74 percent, and SK hynix plunged 2.53 percent.

Hyundai Motor dropped 0.52 percent, and its smaller affiliate Kia retreated 1.22 percent.

Bio and financial shares also started in negative territory.

Samsung Biologics went down 0.96 percent, and Celltrion pulled back 1.36 percent.

KB Financial Group lost more than 1 percent, and Shinhan Financial Group fell 1.89 percent.

But battery shares gained ground, with LG Energy Solution up 0.45 percent and Posco Future M up 1.18 percent.

The local currency was trading at 1,392.20 won against the dollar, up 3.5 won from the previous session's close.

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