Seoul shares turn higher late Wednesday morning on tech gains

Seoul shares experienced a late morning rally, driven by gains in technology stocks, as investors remained cautious ahead of the U.S. Federal Reserve's interest rate decision. The Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) rose 0.2 percent to 6,640.47 by 11:20 a.m., after initially opening 0.24 percent lower. Institutional investors bought a net 388.99 billion won worth of shares, while foreign and retail investors offloaded a net 922.78 billion won and 126.95 billion won worth of shares, respectively.

The U.S. stock market saw declines overnight, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average falling 0.63 percent and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite losing 0.78 percent. Additionally, a key Saudi oil pipeline was hit in an attack and went offline, and tensions in the Middle East, including Yemen's Houthi rebels seizing more islands in the Red Sea, caused Brent crude futures to rise over 2 percent to above $108 a barrel.

Brief written by urgent.news from The Korea Times's own syndicated text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.