South Korean stocks opened sharply lower Thursday, tracking overnight losses on Wall Street amid concerns over a second wave of the novel coronavirus pandemic.

The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) shed 1.13 points, or 24.47 percent, to 2,137.04 in the first 15 minutes of trading.

On Wednesday (local time), US stocks closed lower as investors were concerned over rising new coronavirus infections in major countries.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 2.7 percent, the S&P 500 was down 2.6 percent and the Nasdaq Composite Index decreased 2.2 percent.

On the Seoul bourse, most large-cap shares were trading bearish.

Market kingpin Samsung Electronics lost 1.32 percent, and SK hynix, a global chipmaker, was down 1.28 percent. No. 1 automaker Hyundai Motor shed 2.43 percent, and the country's No. 1 portal operator Naver was down 1.25 percent.

In contrast, major pharmaceutical firm Samsung BioLogics was up 0.98 percent, and another leading player, Celltrion, gained 0.78 percent.

The local currency was trading at 1,206 won against the US dollar, down 6.6 won from the previous session's close. (Yonhap)