Driven by a sustained rally in large semiconductor stocks, South Korea's listed market capitalization has risen about 86% year-to-date to roughly $5.0 trillion, overtaking India, whose market cap has fallen to about $4.8 trillion. South Korea has also this year surpassed Canada, Germany, the UK and France to rank sixth globally.

U.S. marquee tech names diverged in pre-market trade: Broadcom (AVGO.O) up 5.5%; Oracle (ORCL.N) down 2.5%; Alphabet (GOOG.O) and Intel (INTC.O) down about 2% each; AMD (AMD.O) and Microsoft (MSFT.O) down about 1.5% each.

Axios, citing two US officials and a person familiar with the call, reported that on Monday former US president Donald Trump angrily berated Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, reportedly calling him 'f---ing crazy' and accusing him of ingratitude. The sources said Trump told Netanyahu to call off a planned strike on Beirut, warning that bombing Lebanon's capital would further isolate Israel, and said he had helped keep Netanyahu out of jail. Earlier Monday Iran threatened to shelve negotiations with the US. Trump later posted a public message thanking Netanyahu.