Seoul shares turn higher late Wednesday morning on tech gains

Seoul shares saw a late morning rise on Wednesday, driven by gains in technology stocks, as investors remained wary of the upcoming U.S. Federal Reserve decision on interest rates. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) began trading lower by 0.24 percent but eventually climbed 13.21 points, or 0.2 percent, to 6,640.47 as of 11:20 a.m. Institutional investors bought a net 388.99 billion won worth of shares, while foreign and retail investors offloaded shares worth 922.78 billion won and 126.95 billion won, respectively.

The previous night, U.S. stocks experienced a decline, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropping 0.63 percent and the tech-focused Nasdaq Composite falling 0.78 percent. Additionally, a critical Saudi oil pipeline suffered an attack, causing it to go offline, and the Houthi rebels in Yemen expanded their control over more islands in the Red Sea shipping routes. These Middle Eastern tensions caused Brent crude futures, the global oil benchmark, to surge more than 2 percent, breaching the $108 per barrel mark.

The 10-year U.S. Treasury note yield also reached above 5 percent for the first time since 2019, reflecting the market's cautious sentiment leading up to the Fed's interest rate announcement.