South Korean stocks opened lower Monday as investors continued to take a breather amid the recent rally on the main bourse.

The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index dipped 10.66 points, or 0.45 percent, to 2,371.03 in the first 15 minutes of trading.

Large cap stocks were mixed across the board.

Market kingpin Samsung Electronics was down 1.48 percent, and SK hynix, a major chipmaker, lost 1.54 percent. Top IT service firm Naver dipped 4.17 percent.

Medical and financial shares, however, started in positive terrain, with Shinhan Financial climbing 2.4 percent and BioLogics, a biopharmaceutical affiliate of Samsung Group, adding 1.56 percent.

The local currency was trading at 1,125.6 won against the US dollar, down 2.4 won from the previous session's close. (Yonhap)