South Korean stocks kicked off sharply lower Thursday, tracking overnight losses on Wall Street.

The benchmark Korea Composite S

tock Price Index (Kospi) lost 33.62 points, or 1.3 percent, to 2,560.17 in the first 15 minutes of trading.

Overnight, Wall Street finished lower, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average down 0.22 percent, the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite down 0.56 percent and the S&P 500 down 0.33 percent, as chip companies, including Advanced Micro Devices and Nvidia, lost ground.

In Seoul, most market heavyweights started in negative territory.

Market bellwether Samsung Electronics was flat, while its chipmaking rival SK hynix slid 1.95 percent.

Battery shares lost ground on disappointing third-quarter earnings.

Industry leader LG Energy Solution dropped 1.34 percent, and its smaller rivals Samsung SDI and Posco Future M decreased 1.47 percent and 1.97 percent, respectively.

Top automaker Hyundai Motor also pulled back 1.13 percent, with its sister Kia down 0.74 percent.

Korea Zinc, the world's largest zinc smelter in the middle of a management control battle, plunged 13.69 percent.

The local currency was trading at 1,381.40 won against the US dollar, up 1 won from the previous session. (Yonhap)