"Due to the uncertainty caused by Italy's elections, we could see some foreign selling which will put a temporary halt to the KOSPI's V-shaped recovery" said Lim Dong-rak, an analyst at Hanyang Securities.

However, Lim said local markets were trading below their historical price-equity ratio (PER) of 10, suggesting that valuations were still attractive.

The US benchmark, the Standard & Poor's 500 index, suffered its worst one-day percentage drop in over three months on Monday after the Italian elections raised questions about whether the euro zone's austerity programme could continue.

The Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) fell 0.5 percent to close at 2,009.52 points on Monday, a four-day low. The index is still up 2.4 percent in February.