Seoul stocks open higher on Wall Street gains

SEOUL, June 26 (Yonhap) -- South Korean shares opened higher Friday, tracking overnight gains on Wall Street.

The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) added 15.3 points, or 0.72 percent, to 2,127.67 in the first 15 minutes of trading.

On Thursday (local time), U.S. stocks finished higher on the back of a rally in bank shares.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.18 percent, the tech-laden Nasdaq gained 1.09 percent and the S&P 500 rose 1.1 percent.

In Seoul, most large caps got off to a strong start.

Market bellwether Samsung Electronics gained 0.96 percent, and No. 2 chipmaker SK hynix rose 0.59 percent.

In contrast, top pharmaceutical firm Samsung BioLogics went down 0.12 percent.

The local currency was trading at 1,198.5 won against the U.S. dollar, up 6.2 won from the previous session's close.

khj@yna.co.kr
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