Seoul: Seoul stocks opened sharply higher Thursday as Nvidia's market estimate-beating strong earnings helped ease woes over a slowdown in demand for semiconductors. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) opened up 187.91 points, or 2.76 percent, to 6,996.12.

According to Yonhap News Agency, overnight, major stock indexes on Wall Street closed lower with the S and P 500 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq inching down 0.02 percent and 0.08 percent, respectively. Nvidia's second-quarter earnings, revealed after the closing bell, eased fears of an artificial intelligence (AI) bubble, as the company's sales more than doubled from a year earlier, topping Wall Street expectations.