Seoul Stocks Open Lower Despite Modest Wall Street Gains

South Korean stocks opened modestly lower on Friday, diverging from small gains on Wall Street as investors weighed easing U.S. Treasury yields against higher crude oil prices and mixed trading in major technology shares.

The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index opened 0.47 percent lower. By 9:15 a.m., it had pared much of that decline and was down 10.17 points, or 0.15 percent, at 6,961.18. The early movement indicated cautious trading rather than a broad selloff, with the index recovering part of its opening loss within the first 15 minutes of the session.

U.S. stocks had ended the previous session slightly higher after benchmark Treasury yields retreated from fresh multi-decade highs. Lower bond yields can support equity valuations by reducing the relative appeal of fixed-income assets and easing pressure on companies’ financing costs. However, rising oil prices limited gains in New York and presented an additional concern for energy-importing economies such as South Korea.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.04 percent, the S&P 500 gained 0.19 percent and the technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite added 0.04 percent. Those advances provided only limited momentum for the Seoul market at the open.

Trading among South Korea’s largest listed companies was mixed. Samsung Electronics, the country’s market bellwether, fell 0.22 percent, while SK hynix edged up 0.22 percent. SK Square, the parent company of SK hynix, declined 0.61 percent. Samsung Electro-Mechanics, a major electronic components producer affiliated with Samsung Electronics, lost 0.7 percent.

The contrasting moves in semiconductor-related shares showed that investors were distinguishing among individual companies rather than making a uniform bet on the technology sector. The losses among several heavyweight stocks were enough to keep the broader index in negative territory during early trading.

In the foreign-exchange market, the Korean won traded at 1,362.6 won per U.S. dollar, 4.2 won weaker than the close of the previous stock-trading session. A weaker won can raise import costs, including the local-currency cost of energy, while also affecting foreign investors’ returns from Korean assets.

Investors were expected to continue monitoring global bond yields, crude oil prices and currency movements for direction. With the KOSPI still close to the 7,000-point threshold, changes in heavyweight technology stocks could remain decisive for the market’s performance through the session.