Asian stocks were mixed on Tuesday as investors looked to the U.S. midterm elections set for later in the day.

Mainland China markets ended the trading day lower, with the Shanghai composite sliding 0.23 percent to close at around 2,659.36 and the Shenzhen composite declining 0.356 percent to about 1,346.19.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng index, meanwhile, recovered from its earlier losses to see gains of 0.79 percent in afternoon trade.

Japan's Nikkei 225 rose by 1.14 percent to close at 22,147.75 and the Topix index saw gains of 1.16 percent to end the trading day at 1,659.35.

Shares of conglomerate Softbank dropped 1.97 percent for the trading day despite earlier reporting a profit surge for the second quarter of 2018 helped by higher valuations on high-tech bets. The conglomerate's CEO, Masayoshi Son, said on Monday that "there may be some impact" on its Saudi-backed Vision Fund following the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi

The Japanese tech investment giant has poured billions into start-ups in Silicon Valley and around the world through this investment fund.

In Australia, the was 0.98 percent higher to close at 5,875.2, with most sectors seeing gains. The energy and materials sectors were up 1.55 and 1.66 percent, respectively, as the heavily weighted financial subindex advanced 0.84 percent.

The moves Down Under came after the Reserve Bank of Australia announced its decision to keep the cash rate unchanged at 1.5 percent.

"The low level of interest rates is continuing to support the Australian economy. Further progress in reducing unemployment and having inflation return to target is expected, although this progress is likely to be gradual," the central bank's governor, Philip Lowe, said in a media release.

The move was widely anticipated by market observers, with Rakuten Securities Australia saying in a morning note that "local investors looking to make money today will probably be (focusing) more on the Melbourne Cup."

Meanwhile, South Korea's Kospi saw a gain of 0.61 percent to close at 2,089.62.