Seoul shares opened lower Thursday as the possibility of continued rate hikes by the US Federal Reserve dented market sentiment.

The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index lost 7.1 points, or 0.28 percent, to 2,567.98 in the first 15 minutes of trading.

Overnight, Wall Street closed little changed following the release of the Federal Reserve's Beige Book, Fed officials' hawkish comments and a string of mixed corporate earnings including Tesla and Morgan Stanley.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.23 percent and the S&P 500 inched 0.01 percent lower, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite added 0.03 percent.

The Federal Reserve's Beige Book, released Wednesday, showed inflation and employment slowed in 12 Fed districts.

But Fed officials still signaled another rate hike is coming at their policy meeting early May to fight inflation.

In Seoul, big-cap stocks opened mixed.

Market bellwether Samsung Electronics shed 0.46 percent, and No. 2 chipmaker SK hynix declined 1.25 percent. Leading car maker Hyundai Motor inched down 0.36 percent.

Among the winners, major chemical firm LG Chem climbed 0.76 percent and steel giant Posco Holdings inched up 0.24 percent.

The local currency was trading at 1,327.9 won against the US dollar, down 2.2 won from the previous session's close. (Yonhap)