South Korean stocks opened higher Friday, led by big-cap tech shares, as investors welcomed the progress in the United States' debt ceiling deal. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index added 18.7 points, or 0.73 percent, to 2,587.87 in the first 15 minutes of trading. Overnight, US stocks closed higher as the House of Representatives passed a debt ceiling bill to avoid a federal default. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.47 percent, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite jumped

South Korea's consumer prices growth slowed for the fourth consecutive month in May from a year ago, data showed Friday, in yet another signal that the country's inflation has passed its peak. Consumer prices, a key gauge of inflation, rose 3.3 percent last month from a year earlier, compared with a 3.7 percent on-year rise in April, according to the report from Statistics Korea. The growth fell below 4 percent for the first time in 14 months in April. The prices of utility services shot up 23.2