Seoul shares open higher on Sept. 19

[THE INVESTOR] South Korean shares opened higher on Sept. 19, on eased worries over a rate hike in the United States.

The benchmark KOSPI rose 1.30 points, or 0.07 percent, to 2,000.66 in the first 15 minutes of trading.

The main index continued to gain after marking a 0.4 percent increase for the whole of last week. On Sept. 13, it closed at 1,999.36. The local bourse was closed starting Sept. 14 due to Chuseok.

Investors will closely watch the minutes of the Federal Open Market Committee’s discussion of monetary policy in September, which will be released later this week.

The Dow Jones industrial average lost 0.49 percent, with the tech-heavy NASDAQ composite index declining 0.1 percent.

Most large-cap stocks advanced across the board.

Samsung Electronics rose 1.57 percent, leading cosmetics maker AmorePacific gained 1.59 percent and No. 2 chipmaker SK hynix was up 3.17 percent.

(theinvestor@heraldcorp.com)