South Korean stocks got off to a weak start Wednesday, tracking overnight Wall Street losses, as most big-cap shares fell across the board.

The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index fell 12.05 points, or 0.45 percent, to 2,655.02 in the first 15 minutes of trading.

Wall Street finished mixed Tuesday as investors took a breather from a monthslong rally ahead of earnings reports from major companies, including Apple Inc. and Amazon.com Inc., and US jobs data.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.2 percent, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite trimmed 0.43 percent and the S&P 500 lost 0.27 percent.

In Seoul, most big-cap shares lost ground across the board.

Market behemoth Samsung Electronics retreated 0.98 percent, and No. 2 chipmaker SK hynix fell more than 1.5 percent.

Leading battery maker LG Energy Solution dipped 0.18 percent and its smaller rival Samsung SDI went down 0.45 percent.

Top chemical producer LG Chem went down 0.31 percent.

Auto shares also started in negative terrain, with Hyundai Motor and its affiliate Kia both losing more than 0.8 percent. Hyundai Mobis, Hyundai Motor's auto parts affiliate, sank more than 2 percent.

Bio stocks also went down, with Samsung Biologics losing 0.5 percent and Celltrion dipping 0.2 percent.

Steel giant Posco Holdings also retreated 0.32 percent.

Kakao Bank plunged more than 3 percent on profit taking despite a solid earnings report.

The local currency was trading at 1,290.30 won against the US dollar at 9:15 a.m., down 6.5 won from Tuesday's close. (Yonhap)