South Korean stocks opened lower Friday, tracking overnight losses on Wall Street, as a Chinese property giant filed for bankruptcy and yields neared record highs.
The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index shed 15.53 points, or 0.62 percent, to 2,504.32 in the first 15 minutes of trading.
Investors were worried about the Chinese economy, as China's Evergrande Group filed for bankruptcy in the United States on Thursday after struggling with over $300 billion in liabilities, according to foreign media reports.
Eyes are also on the Federal Reserve's potential push for further rate hikes to curb inflation and the 10-year US Treasury yield that has stayed near recent highs.
Overnight, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.84 percent, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite dropped 1.17 percent.
In Seoul, most top-cap shares opened lower.
Market bellwether Samsung Electronics sank 1.05 percent, and leading battery maker LG Energy Solution lost 1.67 percent.
Chip giant SK hynix retreated 0.7 percent, and Samsung SDI dropped 1.81 percent. LG Chem decreased 1.2 percent.
But bio shares rose, with major biotech firm Samsung Biologics adding 0.91 percent.
Celltrion spiked 8.7 percent after it announced a merger with its sales and marketing affiliate Celltrion Healthcare in a bid to become a global drugmaker by streamlining its key operational structure.
Carmakers opened mixed, with top automaker Hyundai Motor rising 0.27 percent and Kia going down 0.26 percent.
The local currency was trading at 1,337.190 won against the US dollar at 9:15 a.m., up 4.1 won from the previous session's close. (Yonhap)
