South Korean shares opened higher Wednesday, tracking overnight rallies on Wall Street amid lingering uncertainty over higher inflation and combative monetary tightening in major economies.

The Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) rose 23.55 points, or 0.90 percent, to 2,643.99 in the first 15 minutes of trading.

Overnight, US stocks closed higher, boosted by a rally in tech stocks, in the face of Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's hawkish comments.

Powell said the Fed was ready to act aggressively to rein in high inflation.

"If that involves moving past broadly understood levels of neutral, we won't hesitate to do that," he said in a livestreamed interview by the Wall Street Journal.

The S&P500 rose 2.02 percent, and the Nasdaq Composite went up 2.76 percent. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 1.34 percent.

In Seoul, most large-cap stocks traded higher.

Market bellwether Samsung Electronics rose 1.63 percent, and major battery maker LG Energy Solution gained 0.73 percent. The country's largest chemical company LG Chem jumped 2.97 percent, and internet giant Naver went up 1.27 percent.

The local currency was trading at 1,266.60 won against the US dollar as of 9:15 a.m., up 8.40 won from the previous session's close. (Yonhap)