Stocks open higher Tuesday on tech rally

Stocks opened higher Tuesday on tech gains tracking overnight Wall Street gains. The benchmark Kospi added 17.3 points, or 0.69 percent, to 2,526.1 in the first 15 minutes of trading.

Screens in Hana Bank's trading room in central Seoul show stock and foreign exchange markets close on Monday. [YONHAP]

Stocks opened higher Tuesday on tech gains tracking overnight Wall Street gains.

The benchmark Kospi added 17.3 points, or 0.69 percent, to 2,526.1 in the first 15 minutes of trading.

Wall Street closed mixed overnight, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite rallying 1.56 percent and the S&P 500 rising 0.69 percent. The Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 0.11 percent.

U.S. chipmaker Nvidia, which has spurred the artificial intelligence boom this year, sharply rose 8.3 percent ahead of its earnings report slated for Wednesday.

SoftBank's chip designer Arm also filed for a Nasdaq listing at a $64 billion valuation, the biggest U.S. initial public offering in nearly two years.

In Seoul, most large-cap stocks opened higher.

Samsung Electronics rallied 0.9 percent, and SK hynix jumped 2.23 percent.

LG Energy Solution advanced 2.09 percent, Samsung SDI increased 1.02 percent, and LG Chem rose 1.94 percent.

Naver surged 3.26 percent.

Among the decliners, Samsung Biologics shed 0.9 percent.

The local currency was trading at 1,341.4 won against the dollar at 9:15 a.m., down 1.2 won from the previous session's close.

BY SOHN DONG-JOO, YONHAP [sohn.dongjoo@joongang.co.kr]