▲ A dealing room at Hana Bank in central Seoul on Feb. 5, 2026 (Yonhap)

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Seoul stocks open sharply lower on U.S. tech drop

SEOUL, Feb. 5 (Yonhap) -- South Korean stocks opened sharply lower Thursday, reflecting tech giants' tumble on Wall Street caused by continued woes over their high valuation.

The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) shed 72.71 points, or 1.35 percent, to 5,298.39 in the first 15 minutes of trading, dropping from an all-time high of over 5,300 points reached the previous day.

Overnight, the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite dipped 1.51 percent and the S&P 500 lost 0.51 percent as U.S. investors paced up their selling of blue-chip tech shares, such of the Magnificent Seven companies, amid valuation woes.

In Seoul, large cap shares kicked off mixed.

Semiconductor heavyweights Samsung Electronics and SK hynix tumbled 3.08 percent and 3.78 percent, respectively, directly affected by the U.S. tech slide.

Defense giant Hanwha Aerospace slid 3.63 percent and artificial intelligence (AI) investment firm SK Square dipped 3.87 percent.

Power plant manufacturer Doosan Enerbility lost 1.76 percent and major shipbuilder HD Hyundai Heavy went down 1.03 percent.

On the other hand, leading battery maker LG Energy Solution gained 1.24 percent.

Automakers also started strong, with Hyundai Motor up 0.79 percent and Kia adding 2.36 percent.

The Korean won was trading at 1,461.8 won against the U.S. dollar as of 9:15 a.m., down 11.6 won from the previous session's close.

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