Seoul shares open higher, tracking Wall Street gains

Seoul shares opened higher Friday, tracking gains on Wall Street, after the U.S. Federal Reserve's first rate cut in more than four years lifted investor sentiment. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index rose 1.09 percent, or 28.01 points, to 2,608.81 in the first 15 minutes of trading. Overnight, the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 1.3 percent to 42,025.19 points, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite jumped 2.5 percent to 18,013.98. On Wednesday (U.S. time), the Fed kicked off its monetary-easing cycle by cutting its overnight lending rate by half a percentage point to a range of 4.75 percent to 5 percent. The U.S. central bank also pledged a further rate reduction that boosted investor sentiment. In Seoul, tech stocks were lead gainers. Market bellwether Samsung Electronics Co. rose 1.1 percent, No. 2 chipmaker SK hynix Inc. climbed 3.8 percent, top carmaker Hyundai Motor Co. advanced 1.4 percent, and leading battery maker LG Energy Solution Ltd. was up 2.4 percent. Among decliners, natio nal flag carrier Korean Air Co. fell 0.2 percent, leading refiner SK Innovation Co. declined 1 percent, and leading wireless services provider SK Telecom Co. shed 1.2 percent. The local currency was trading at 1,328.90 won against the U.S. dollar, up 0.10 won from the previous session. Source: Yonhap News Agency