An electronic board showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index at a dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul on Wednesday. (Yonhap)
An electronic board showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index at a dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul on Wednesday. (Yonhap)

Seoul shares opened higher Wednesday, helped by tech gains amid concerns over additional tariffs set to be announced by the US government early next month.

The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index rose 21.53 points, or 0.82 percent, to 2,648.34 in the first 15 minutes of trading.

US President Donald Trump recently ordered a 25 percent tariff on all steel and aluminum imports.

In addition, he is expected to impose tariffs of around 25 percent on automobile, semiconductor and pharmaceutical imports as early as April 2.

In Seoul, tech stocks led gains.

Market bellwether Samsung Electronics rose 1.4 percent, and No. 2 chipmaker SK hynix jumped 3.6 percent.

Leading home appliance maker LG Electronics climbed 2.4 percent, and leading wireless services provider SK Telecom gained 0.7 percent.

Among decliners, top carmaker Hyundai Motor fell 0.3 percent, and leading refiner SK Innovation declined 0.08 percent.

Shipbuilder Hanwha Ocean shed 1.7 percent, and leading shipping firm HMM was down 0.4 percent.

The local currency was trading at 1,443.40 won against the dollar at 9:15 a.m., up 0.3 won from the previous session. (Yonhap)