South Korean share prices opened slightly higher on Tuesday following overnight gains on Wall Street.

The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index gained 12.24 points, or 0.65 percent, to 1,907.08 in the first 15 minutes of trading.

The index was trading about half a percent higher as of 9:56 a.m. 

Analysts say sentiment is recovering from the previous session’s plunge sparked mainly by sharp declines in the Chinese equity markets.

Overnight, investors bought stocks on Wall Street to nudge the Dow Jones Industrial Average up by 0.32 percent to close at 16,398.57 points.

Most large caps opened in positive terrain this morning, with tech giant Samsung Electronics adding 0.95 percent.

The nation’s No. 1 automaker Hyundai Motor edged up 0.36 percent with its smaller affiliate Kia Motors adding 1.41 percent.

The Korean won started the morning at around 1,206.60 won against the U.S. dollar, marking a rebound from its lowest level since July 2010.

(khnews@heraldcorp.com)