Seoul shares down late Wed. morning on tech losses

South Korean stocks traded lower late Wednesday morning as Samsung Electronics and other major chipmakers lost ground tracking AI chip giant Nvidia's slump overnight. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) dropped 5.86 points, or 0.22 percent, to 2,690.77 as of 11:20 a.m. Overnight, major U.S. indexes lost ground to take a breather from a recent rally, with Nvidia falling more than 2 percent. In Seoul, tech behemoth Samsung Electronics declined 0.89 percent, and major chipmaker SK hynix plunged 3.86 percent. Top automaker Hyundai Motor pulled back 1.76 percent, and its smaller affiliate Kia decreased 1.06 percent. Financial shares were also weak, with KB Financial down 2.78 percent and Shinhan Financial down 0.86 percent. Shipbuilder HD Hyundai Heavy also slid 3.55 percent. On the other hand, battery makers were bullish. Industry leader LG Energy Solution shot up 6.36 percent, and its smaller rival Samsung SDI soared 4.66 percent. Top chemical producer LG Chem also jumped 3.43 perce nt. Major biopharmaceutical firms Samsung Biologics and Celltrion also increased 2.54 percent and 1.22 percent, respectively. The local currency was trading at 1,331.9 won against the U.S. dollar, up 1.3 won from the previous session's close. Source: Yonhap News Agency