An electronic board showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index at a dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul on Friday. (Yonhap)
South Korean stocks opened nearly flat Friday after hitting a nearly two-year high the previous session despite overnight gains on Wall Street.
The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index edged down 2.76 points, or 0.1 percent, to 2,752.1 in the first 15 minutes of trading.
On Thursday, the main index rallied by more than 2 percent amid growing hopes for US rate cuts in the near future.
Overnight, the Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 0.68 percent to a new high, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq also advanced to set a new record by increasing 0.32 percent and 0.2 percent, respectively.
In Seoul, tech giant Samsung Electronics fell 0.76 percent, and No. 2 chipmaker SK hynix lost 0.88 percent.
Naver, which operates the country's top search engine, gained 2.06 percent, and its rival Kakao added 0.75 percent.
The local currency was trading at 1,330.8 won against the US dollar, down 8.4 won from the previous session's close. (Yonhap)
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