South Korean stocks opened sharply higher Tuesday, led by gains in tech heavyweights, following a record close for the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite amid revived hopes for artificial intelligence and a fall in global oil prices and bond yields.
The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index was up 141.58 points, or 2.02 percent, to 7,149.3 as of 9:15 a.m.
On Monday, US stocks rallied, with the Nasdaq Composite rising 2.3 percent. The S&P 500 gained 1.5 percent, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.7 percent.
Investor sentiment improved sharply, backed by a broad rally in AI-related stocks as well as falling oil prices and softening US Treasury yields.
In Seoul, most market heavyweights traded higher.
Top market cap Samsung Electronics rose 2.55 percent, and chip giant SK hynix gained 3.21 percent.
SK Square, the parent company of SK hynix, advanced 3.02 percent, while Samsung Electro-Mechanics, an electronics component affiliate of Samsung Electronics, jumped 6.58 percent.
The Korean won was trading at 1,369.6 won against the US dollar, up 4.9 won from the close of the previous stock trading session. (Yonhap)
