April 26, 2024

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[THE INVESTOR] Seoul stocks opened higher on Nov. 29 on China's decision to partially lift its ban on group tours to South Korea.

The benchmark KOSPI rose 1.12 points, or 0.04 percent, to 2,515.31 in the first 15 minutes of trading.

Cosmetic and other shares related to China gained ground as China’s National Tourism Administration made a decision to allow offline tourist agencies in Beijing and Shandong Province to sell package tours to South Korea, said Park Chun-young, an analyst at Daishin Securities.

She said the main index was largely unaffected by North Korea‘s missile launch earlier in the day.

Most large-cap stocks were mixed across the board.

Among gainers, No. 2 chipmaker SK hynix Inc. rose 0.12 percent, and top carmaker Hyundai Motor was up 1.27 percent.

Meanwhile, market bellwether Samsung Electronics fell 0.56 percent, and Naver, the operator of the country’s top Internet portal, was down 0.37 percent.

The local currency was trading at 1,083.20 won against the U.S. dollar, up 1.20 won from the previous session's close.

By Alex Lee and newswires (alexlee@heraldcorp.com)