South Korea's KOSPI surged more than 5 percent early on Tuesday, breaking above the 7,000 mark. Strong buying in large-cap semiconductor shares triggered a buy sidecar at one point during the session. It was the eighth such move this year and the first in about a month since April 8.

The KOSPI opened up 156.02 points, or 2.25 percent, at 7,093.01 from the previous session's close. It later jumped as high as 7,311.54, setting another intraday record.

The Korea Exchange said a buy sidecar was triggered at about 9:06:02 a.m. after a sharp rise in KOSPI200 futures, halting the effectiveness of program buy orders for 5 minutes. At the time, the KOSPI200 futures index was up 66.05 points, or 6.28 percent, at 1,116.55 from the previous day's close.

A KOSPI buy sidecar is triggered when KOSPI200 futures stay 5 percent or more above a reference price for 1 minute.

By investor category, individuals were net buyers of 531.4 billion won and foreigners bought a net 14.1 billion won, lifting the index. Institutions were net sellers of 503.6 billion won.

Most heavyweight stocks were higher. Samsung Electronics was up 8.39 percent at 252,000 won and SK Hynix was up 8.43 percent at 1,569,000 won. SK Square rose 9.69 percent, Hyundai Motor gained 1.30 percent, Samsung Electro-Mechanics added 0.76 percent and Doosan Enerbility rose 0.55 percent.

Hanwha Aerospace fell 3.48 percent, HD Hyundai Heavy Industries slid 3.01 percent and LG Energy Solution was down 0.32 percent.

The Kosdaq was trading at 1,205.49 at the same time, down 8.25 points, or 0.68 percent, from the previous session.

In the Seoul foreign exchange market, the won was up 7.00 won at 1,462.00 per dollar.