South Korean stocks were up late Tuesday morning, led by tech and battery gains.
The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) had added 10.41 points, or 0.41 percent, to 2,519.21 as of 11:20 a.m.
Overnight, Wall Street closed mixed, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite rallying 1.56 percent and the S&P 500 rising 0.69 percent. The Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 0.11 percent.
U.S. chipmaker Nvidia, which has spurred the artificial intelligence boom this year, sharply rose 8.3 percent ahead of its earnings report slated for Wednesday.
SoftBank's chip designer Arm also filed for a Nasdaq listing at a US$64 billion valuation, the biggest U.S. initial public offering in nearly two years.
In Seoul, most top-cap companies traded higher, with chip and secondary battery makers leading the gains.
Market bellwether Samsung Electronics climbed 0.45 percent, and its smaller semiconductor rival SK hynix advanced 0.77 percent.
Leading battery maker LG Energy Solution jumped 2.09 percent, Samsung SDI increased 1.69 percent, and LG Chem rose 1.06 percent.
Internet giant Naver surged 2.8 percent.
Carmakers also performed well, with top automaker Hyundai Motor climbing 0.43 percent and Kia going up 0.26 percent.
Among the decliners, major biotech firm Samsung Biologics shed 0.51 percent and Celltrion lost 0.21 percent.
The local currency was trading at 1,340.4 won against the U.S. dollar at 11:20 a.m., up 2.2 won from the previous session's close.
Source: Yonhap News Agency