Kospi opens lower to follow tech slide on Wall Street

Shares opened lower Tuesday, tracking an overnight tech slide on Wall Street.

A screen in Hana Bank's trading room in central Seoul shows the Kospi opening on Monday. [YONHAP]

Shares opened lower Tuesday, tracking an overnight tech slide on Wall Street.

The benchmark Kospi lost 11.74 points, or 0.44 percent, to reach 2,686.27 in the first 15 minutes of trading.

Overnight, major U.S. indexes closed mixed as the Dow Jones Industrial Average increased 0.16 percent, while the S&P 500 and tech-heavy Nasdaq composite fell 0.32 percent and 0.85 percent, respectively.

AI chipmaker Nvidia slid 2.25 percent ahead of its second-quarter earnings release due later this week, and other tech firms, including Micron and AMD, also lost ground.

In Seoul, Samsung Electronics shed 0.39 percent and SK hynix decreased 1.56 percent.

Automaker Hyundai Motor lost 1.6 percent, and its smaller affiliate Kia dropped 1.46 percent.

Battery shares were mixed, with LG Energy Solution down 0.79 percent and Samsung SDI up 0.45 percent.

Samsung Biologics jumped 3.64 percent, and Celltrion advanced 1.22 percent.

Chemical producer LG Chem also climbed 1.42 percent.

The local currency was trading at 1,330.1 won against the U.S. dollar, up 3.3 won from the previous session's close.

BY YOON SEUNG-JIN, YONHAP [yoon.seungjin@joongang.co.kr]