South Korean stocks got off to a strong start Thursday, buoyed by gains in blue chip battery and automakers, bucking overnight drops on Wall Street.

The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index rose 22.38 points, or 0.99 percent, to 2,271.94 in the first 20 minutes of trading.

The US S&P and Nasdaq finished lower Wednesday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average closing a tad higher, largely dampened by weaker earnings reports by major tech firms, including Microsoft and Alphabet.

In Seoul, top battery producer LG Energy Solution, the second-largest listed firm by market cap, went up more than 2 percent and its smaller rival Samsung SDI jumped over 3 percent.

No. 1 automaker Hyundai Motor also climbed about 1.6 percent.

In contrast, tech behemoth Samsung Electronics slipped 0.2 percent, shortly after it reported a 30 percent decline in its third-quarter operating profit.

Chip giant SK hynix was also down about 0.4 percent.

The local currency started off rising sharply against the US dollar and was trading at 1,414.30 won as of 9:20 a.m., up 12.3 won from Wednesday's close. (Yonhap)