A financial data screen at Woori Bank's dealing room in central Seoul shows the benchmark Kospi standing at 7,000.95 during early trading Friday. (Yoon Chang-bin/The Korea Herald) The South Korean benchmark Kospi rose above the 7,000-point mark during trading Friday for the first time in 15 sessions, buoyed by gains in US technology stocks.In early trading, the index reached an intraday high of 7,010.86, climbing above the 7,000 threshold for the first time since July 24. It later pared some of its gains, trading at 6,945.46, up 1.94 percent from the previous session, as of 9:25 a.m.The Kospi's gains came as US technology stocks broadly advanced in the previous session amid easing inflationary pressures and falling oil prices.In the main bourse, foreign investors were net buyers of stocks amounting to 468.6 billion won ($330.9 million), while retail and institutional investors were net sellers of 194.2 billion won and 253.3 billion won, respectively.Most of the Kospi's large-cap stocks were trading higher. Chipmakers Samsung Electronics and SK hynix gained 0.84 percent and 5.02 percent, respectively, while Samsung Electronics preferred shares and SK Square rose more than 2 percent each.Samsung Electro-Mechanics, recently named Morgan Stanley’s top pick among Korean technology stocks, replacing Samsung Electronics, surged 3.06 percent, following a 12.58 percent gain in the previous session.The secondary bourse Kosdaq was trading at 869.45, up 0.94 percent.