South Korean shares opened higher Monday as big-cap defense and shipbuilding shares kicked off strong ahead of their planned earnings release.
The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index added 50.35 points, or 1.23 percent, to 4,157.85 in the first 15 minutes of trading.
On Friday, major US indexes closed higher, led by sharp gains in Amazon Web Services and Tesla. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.09 percent, the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite increased 0.61 percent, and the S&P 500 added 0.26 percent.
Shares in AWS surged 9.58 percent on an upbeat earnings forecast, and those in Tesla jumped 3.74 percent on news its self-driving robotaxi will make its Asian debut in China.
In Seoul, investors' eyes were on the earnings release of major defense and shipbuilding companies, such as Hanwha Aerospace, Hyundai Rotem, HD Hyundai Heavy and HD Korea Shipbuilding, that had recently pushed up the KOSPI.
Defense industry leader Hanwha Aerospace started 2.76 percent higher, and its smaller rival Hyundai Rotem began more than 1 percent higher.
Major shipbuilders kicked off bullish as well, with HD Hyundai Heavy soaring 4.5 percent, Hanwha Ocean advancing 3.27 percent and HD Korea Shipbuilding jumping 3.06 percent.
Blue chip tech and auto shares also continued their recent upward momentum.
Samsung Electronics rose 0.19 percent, and its chipmaking rival SK hynix surged 4.65 percent.
Internet portal operator Naver climbed 3.93 percent, while Korean auto giant Hyundai Motor went up 0.52 percent.
The four companies are the ones with which US artificial intelligence chip giant Nvidia announced partnerships last week.
On Friday, Nvidia said it will deploy up to 260,000 graphic processing units in South Korea in partnership with the companies to build large-scale AI factories here.
Tech investing firm SK Square expanded 4.23 percent, and energy solutions provider HD Hyundai Electric shot up 7.24 percent.
The local currency was quoted at 1,429.2 won against the US dollar as of 9:15 a.m., down 4.8 won from the previous session.
nyway@yna.co.kr
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