An electronic board showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index at a dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul on Thursday. (Yonhap)
An electronic board showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index at a dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul on Thursday. (Yonhap)

Seoul shares opened slightly higher Thursday on retail buying, with gains in shipbuilding and airline stocks offsetting losses in tech and auto shares.

The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index rose 0.39 points, or 0.02 percent, to 2,440.91 in the first 15 minutes of trading.

Individuals bought a net 60.96 billion won ($42 million) worth of stocks, offsetting institutions and foreigners' stock selling valued at 67.4 billion won.

Leading shipbuilder HD Hyundai rose 1.5 percent, Hanwha Group's shipbuilding affiliate Hanwha Ocean jumped 3.3 percent and Samsung Group's shipbuilding unit Samsung Heavy Industries gained 1.3 percent.

National flag carrier Korean Air climbed 0.2 percent and leading budget carrier Jeju Air rose 0.1 percent.

Among decliners, market bellwether Samsung Electronics fell 0.4 percent, top carmaker Hyundai Motor dropped 0.5 percent and leading battery maker LG Energy Solution shed 1 percent.

The local currency was trading at 1,458.50 won against the greenback at 9:15 a.m., down 2.1 won from the previous session. (Yonhap)