Seoul shares closed little changed Wednesday, as the Federal Reserve still warned against high inflation and US AI chip leader Nvidia released lower-than-expected earnings results. The Korean won fell against the US dollar.

The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index was up 1.28 points, or 0.05 percent, to close at 2,511.70.

Trade volume was moderate at 433.37 million shares worth 7.66 trillion won ($5.9 billion), with gainers outnumbering losers 428 to 421.

Institutions and individuals sold a combined 159 billion won worth of stocks, offsetting foreigners' stock purchases valued at 144 billion won.

Overnight, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.2 percent to 35,088.29, and the tech-heavy NASDAQ shed 0.6 percent to 14,199.98.

There have been expectations that the Fed is at the end of its hiking cycle and rate cuts are likely in the first half of 2024. But the Fed minutes showed that officials have no intention to ease the monetary policy.

Nvidia was expected to release strong quarterly results due to growing demand for generative AI but failed to satisfy the high expectations of shareholders.

In Seoul, most large-cap stocks declined.

Top cap Samsung Electronics closed unchanged, and No. 2 chipmaker SK hynix fell 0.5 percent to 131,300 won.

Industry leader Hyundai Motor declined 0.7 percent to 183,000 won, leading car battery maker LG Energy Solution shed 1.1 percent to 442,000 won, and national flag carrier Korean Air Co. was down 1.1 percent to 22.350 won.

Among gainers, Hanwha Ocean, formerly Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering, rose 3.2 percent to 27,600 won, the state-run Korea Electric Power Corp. climbed 1.1 percent to 18,140 won, and leading shipping firm HMM was up 0.6 percent to 16,190 won.

The local currency was trading at 1,300.5 won against the US dollar, down 11.3 won from the previous session's close. (Yonhap)