SEOUL, Jan. 25 (Yonhap) -- South Korean stocks opened higher Thursday as bargain-hunting foreign investors bought local stocks.
The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index gained 7.10 points, or 0.28 percent, to rise to 2,545.10 in the first 15 minutes of trading.
Foreign investors purchased a net 42 billion won (US$39 million) worth of stocks, boosting the main index.
Large-cap stocks were mixed across the board.
No. 2 chipmaker SK hynix Inc. rose 0.69 percent on strong fourth-quarter earnings results. Its net profit jumped 97.7 percent to 3.22 trillion won (US$3 billion) in the October-December period, from 1.62 trillion won a year earlier, on rising chip demand.
Top automaker Hyundai Motor gained 0.64 percent, and LG Chem, a major chemicals and battery firm, was up 0.46 percent.
Among decliners, market bellwether Samsung Electronics Co. fell 0.08 percent, and leading steelmaker POSCO was down 0.26 percent.
The local currency was trading at 1,065.00 won against the U.S. dollar, up 5.20 won from the previous session's close.
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