[THE INVESTOR] South Korean stocks opened lower on Feb. 24 due to increased selling by institutional investors.
The benchmark KOSPI fell 2.11 points, or 0.10 percent, to 2,105.52 as of 9:15 a.m.
The broad index bucked overnight gains on Wall Street. The Dow Jones industrial average advanced 0.17 percent.
“Institutional selling weighed on the index,” said Kim Ye-eun, an analyst at Cape Investment & Securities.
Most large-cap stocks were mixed across the board.
Top automaker Hyundai Motor rose 0.68 percent, and Samsung C&T, the de facto holding firm for Samsung Group, was up 0.40 percent.
Meanwhile, market bellwether Samsung Electronics fell 0.46 percent, and No. 2 chipmaker SK hynix was down 1.10 percent.
The local currency was trading at 1,132.60 won against the US dollar, up 4.70 won from the previous session‘s close.
(theinvestor@heraldcorp.com)