South Korean stocks opened higher Friday, taking a cue from overnight gains on Wall Street.

The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index rose 13.34 points, or 0.44 percent, to 3,021.67 points in the first 15 minutes of trading.

Overnight, the Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 0.62 percent on improved jobless data, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite and the S&P 500 adding 0.12 percent and 0.52 percent, respectively.

In Seoul, top cap Samsung Electronics gained 0.37 percent, and No. 2 chipmaker SK hynix increased 0.75 percent.

Giant internet portal operator Naver slipped 0.13 percent, with its rival Kakao moving down 0.33 percent.

Pharmaceutical giant Samsung Biologics climbed 0.7 percent, and leading chemical firm LG Chem edged down 0.25 percent. Top automaker Hyundai Motor went down 0.92 percent.

The local currency was trading at 1,133.15 won against the US dollar, up 0.15 won from the previous session's close. (Yonhap)