Seoul stocks open tad lower despite Wall Street gains

South Korean stocks started lower on Monday, despite Wall Street's rise, as expectations of a diplomatic resolution to the Iran situation led to a drop in oil prices. The KOSPI, a key index, decreased by 40.16 points, or 0.47 percent, reaching 7,040.76 by 9:15 a.m. This index had previously enjoyed a four-day winning streak, with the market closed for Chuseok, the Korean Thanksgiving holiday.

U.S. stocks finished higher on Friday (local time), with technology and industrial companies driving the gains. The Dow Jones Industrial Average increased by 0.93 percent, while the S&P 500 rose by 0.51 percent and the tech-focused Nasdaq Composite Index climbed by 0.48 percent. Brent crude oil prices settled around US$104 a barrel following reports that Iran had put forward a proposal to resolve the conflict.

In the local market, major companies had mixed performances. Samsung Electronics, a top-tier company by market capitalization, fell by 1.14 percent, while its chip division, SK hynix, lost 2.63 percent. The parent company of SK hynix, SK Square, dropped by 3.36 percent. On the positive side, Samsung Electro-Mechanics, an electronics component subsidiary of Samsung Electronics, rose by 4.31 percent.

The Korean won was trading at 1,357.1 won per U.S. dollar, a slight decrease of 0.1 won from the previous trading session.