Tuesday, October 23, 2018 09:14 WIB

Seoul stocks open lower on bio losses

SEOUL, Oct. 23 (Yonhap) -- South Korean stocks opened lower Tuesday, dragged down by losses in major bio shares.

The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) fell 14.8 points, or 0.68 percent, to 2,146.91 in the first 15 minutes of trading.

Pharmaceutical giant Celltrion plunged 7.26 percent, and Samsung Biologics tumbled 2.68 percent.

Other bluechips also traded lower across the board, with market kingpin Samsung Electronics declining 0.46 percent. SK hynix, a major chipmaker, was down 0.71 percent.

No. 1 carmaker Hyundai Motor dropped 0.85 percent, and LG Chem, a leading chemicals firm, surrendered 0.74 percent.

Top steelmaker POSCO backtracked 0.19 percent.

The South Korean currency was trading at 1,135.00 won against the U.S. dollar, down 6.6 won from the previous session's close.