[THE INVESTOR] South Korean stocks opened nearly flat on Sept. 22 following overnight losses in Wall Street.

The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) shed 0.51 points, or 0.02 percent, to 2,405.99 in the first 15 minutes of trading.

Market kingpin Samsung Electronics was up 1.17 percent, and SK hynix, a major chipmaker, advanced 1.2 percent.

LG Chem, South Korea‘s top chemicals firm declined 1.93 percent, and leading cosmetics company AmorePacific was also down 0.2 percent.

Naver, the country’s top Internet portal operator climbed 0.79 percent.

The local currency was trading at 1,133.40 won against the US dollar, down 0.70 won from the previous session‘s close.

By Alex Lee and newswires (alexlee@heraldcorp.com)