South Korean stocks opened lower Monday as big-cap tech shares lost ground amid persistent concerns over the aggressive monetary tightening by the US Federal Reserve to curb inflation.

The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index shed 12.70 points, or 0.52 percent, to 2,438.51 in the first 15 minutes of trading.

On Friday, US shares ended mixed amid uncertainty over future rate hikes. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.39 percent, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite fell 0.58 percent.

Investors remain worried about the Fed's monetary policy path to bring high inflation under control, according to analysts.

Last week, US data showed that the producer price index for last month rose 0.7 percent from a month earlier, the largest on-month gain since June last year and more than economists expected.

In Seoul, tech blue chips came under heavy downward pressure.

Market bellwether Samsung Electronics fell 0.80 percent, and chip giant SK hynix lost 0.65 percent.

Leading battery maker LG Energy Solution dived 2.44 percent, and Samsung SDI tumbled 2.7 percent.

Major bio shares also lost ground, with Samsung Biologics losing 0.63 percent and Celltrion falling 0.71 percent.

Top automaker Hyundai Motor went down 0.5 percent, and its affiliate Kia shed 0.39 percent.

Among gainers, No. 1 steelmaker Posco Holdings jumped 3.29 percent.

The local currency was trading at 1,299.15 won against the US dollar as of 9:15 a.m., up 0.35 won from the previous session's close. (Yonhap)