Seoul: South Korean stocks opened a tad lower Tuesday, as investors rushed to cash out market heavyweights, bucking overnight gains on Wall Street. After opening at a record high of 8,883.19, the benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) gave up early gains and fell 59.5 points, or 0.68 percent, to 8,728.88 as of 9:15 a.m. The KOSPI had closed at an all-time high of 8,788.38 on Monday.
According to Yonhap News Agency, U.S. stocks finished higher overnight, with major indexes reaching fresh record highs as a rally in tech shares lifted market sentiment. U.S. chip giant Nvidia surged more than 6 percent after CEO Jensen Huang unveiled a new AI processor designed to run local agentic AI applications on personal computers. Meanwhile, oil held gains as Washington struggled to get efforts toward an Iran peace deal back on track, with U.S. President Donald Trump stating that talks with Iran were progressing at a rapid pace.
Large-cap shares in South Korea showed mixed results. Market bellwether Samsung Electronics rose 3.58 percent, whereas its rival chipmaker SK hynix fell 1.86 percent. Top automaker Hyundai Motor saw a decline of 3.87 percent, and electronic components maker Samsung Electro-Mechanics experienced a significant drop of 11.37 percent. Additionally, defense firm Hanwha Aerospace tumbled 7.29 percent following a deadly explosion at its Daejeon factory on Monday.