South Korea's KOSPI opens lower on Jan. 15 on U.S.-led headwinds but soon rebounds and continues to set new intraday record highs. Wall Street posts a second straight session of declines, but the KOSPI extends gains to a 10th straight session as rotation buying continues.

As of 9:31 a.m., the KOSPI is up 16.56 points, or 0.35%, at 4,739.66 from the previous close.

The index starts down 12.82 points, or 0.27%, at 4,710.28 but turns higher early in the session. It breaks past the previous record high of 4,723.10 set a day earlier.

In the main bourse, foreigners and institutions are net buyers of 3.5 billion won and 42.8 billion won, respectively, while individuals are net sellers of 50.4 billion won. Foreigners turn net buyers for the first time in 6 sessions.

South Korean stocks see large-cap chipmakers lose momentum under the influence of weakness in U.S. tech shares, but the broader index is rising as buying shifts to other leading shares in a rotation market.

Samsung Electronics is down 0.43% at 139,700 won, while SK Hynix is down 1.08% at 734,000 won.

Among other top market-cap shares, LG Energy Solution is up 0.13%, Samsung Biologics is up 0.99%, Hanwha Aerospace is up 1.89% and HD Hyundai Heavy Industries is up 3.09%. Hyundai Motor is down 0.12% and Doosan Enerbility is down 0.22%.

Han Ji-young, an analyst at Kiwoom Securities, said, "Recently, the main board market has been moving with the character of a rotation market that takes turns leading an index level-up (rise)."

[Yonhap News Agency]