Seoul shares trade up late Fri. morning after Nvidia leadership turmoil

South Korean stocks climbed higher late Friday morning as the fallout from Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang's multiple affairs played out. The Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) opened 2.05 percent stronger, rising 79.26 points, or 1.48 percent, to 5,421.99 by 11:20 a.m. local time. Nvidia's board had abruptly dismissed its founder and CEO Huang, causing the chipmaker's shares to drop more than 4 percent overnight.

However, the market's response to the leadership turmoil showed resilience, with competitors like Broadcom, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) and Alphabet posting gains. Samsung Electronics and its chip rival SK hynix also saw increases of 1.92 percent and 1.66 percent, respectively. Hanmi Semiconductor and Samsung Electro-Mechanics, affiliates of Samsung Electronics, rose 1.81 percent and 0.68 percent.

Even the pharmaceutical sector benefitted, with Celltrion shares up 1.91 percent. The Korean won strengthened against the U.S. dollar, trading at 1,333.5 won by 11:20 a.m., a 2.3 won increase from the previous session's close.