South Korean stocks opened higher on Friday, following an overnight Wall Street rally fueled by growing anticipation of an economic recovery, analysts said.

The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) moved up 3.85 points, or 0.2 percent, to 1,953.65 in the first 15 minutes of trading.

Shares gathered ground across the board, with market behemoth Samsung Electronics adding 0.52 percent and top shipbuilder Hyundai Heavy Industries adding 0.5 percent. NHN, the operator of South Korea's most visited Web portal, increased 3.04 percent.

U.S. stocks ended higher on Thursday as due to improved jobs data, with the Dow Jones industrial average adding 0.42 percent and the NASDAQ composite index rising 0.09 percent.

The local currency was trading at 1,130.90 won against the U.S. dollar as of 9:15 a.m., down 1.80 won from Thursday's close. (Yonhap News)