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

South Korean stocks opened higher Wednesday, tracking overnight gains on Wall Street led by strong US economic data and robust tech shares.

The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index added 15.5 points, or 0.38 percent, to 4,132.82 in the first 15 minutes of trading.

Overnight, major US indexes ended higher, following reports of stronger-than-expected growth in the world's largest economy and a bullish run of blue-chip tech shares. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.16 percent, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite grew 0.57 percent, and the S&P 500 gained 0.46 percent.

Artificial intelligence chip giant Nvidia jumped over 3 percent after the office of the US Trade Representative said the Donald Trump administration will hold off new tariffs on Chinese chips for 18 months.

In Seoul, tech giant Samsung Electronics went up 0.45 percent, while its chipmaking rival SK hynix increased 0.51 percent.

Top automaker Hyundai Motor jumped 2.44 percent, and its sister Kia climbed 1.16 percent. Hyundai's auto parts subsidiary, Hyundai Mobis, soared 2.75 percent.

Leading battery maker LG Energy Solution also advanced 1.16 percent.

Shipbuilders were mixed, with Hanwha Ocean rising 1.46 percent, while HD Hyundai Heavy and HD Korea Shipbuilding fell 0.94 percent and 1.27 percent, respectively.

The Korean won was trading at 1,469.7 won against the US dollar, up 13.9 won from the previous session's close, as Korea's foreign exchange authorities said an excessively weak Korean won is not desirable. (Yonhap)