South Korean stocks opened sharply lower Friday, tracking overnight losses on Wall Street weighed down by a slump in chipmaker Nvidia and escalating tariff woes.
The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index lost 52.31 points, or 2 percent, to 2,569.44 in the first 15 minutes of trading.
Overnight, major US shares declined as the latest Nvidia results failed to boost investor sentiment on artificial intelligence, which has been cooled by China's DeepSeek.
The S&P 500 dropped 1.59 percent and the tech-heavy Nasdaq tumbled 2.78, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 0.45 percent. Shares of Nvidia tumbled 8.5 percent.
Additionally, an imminent tariff war is looming as US President Trump said he plans to impose new 10 percent tariffs on goods from China and start 25 percent tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico next week.
In Seoul, most shares started in negative territory.
Market bellwether Samsung Electronics fell 1.78 percent and its chipmaking rival SK hynix, a key supplier to Nvidia, sank 3.97 percent.
Top carmaker Hyundai Motor dropped 1.6 percent, and leading battery maker declined 2.02 percent.
Steel giant POSCO Holdings retreated 1.6 percent, and No. 1 oil refinery SK Innovation dipped 2.04 percent.
The local currency was trading at 1,453.85 won against the dollar at 9:15 a.m., down 10.85 won from the previous session. (Yonhap)
