Chinese markets led gains on Tuesday in a mostly positive trading session across Asia, extending their upward climb from the previous day after the banking regulator urged institutions to boost lending in the country.

The rose 35.36 points, or 1.31 percent, to 2,733.82 and the Shenzhen composite added 20.20 points, or 1.39 percent, to 1,471.27.

"Chinese equities rebounded after the banking regulator (called) for banks to boost lending in order to support infrastructure projects and exporters," Huani Zhu, an economist from Mizuho Bank, wrote in a morning note. "This suggests that the government is likely to utilize various policy tools to cushion any downside risk to growth."

The China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission posted a statement on its website that called for institutions to raise the proportion of medium and long-term loans so that borrowers are not strained at the end of the month or quarter, reports said.

In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index was up 0.37 percent at 3:15 p.m. HK/SIN.

Elsewhere, Japan's closed near flat at 22,219.73 while the Topix index ended fell 6.73 points, or 0.4 percent, to 1,685.42.

South Korea's Kospi rose 22.18 points, or 0.99 percent, to 2,270.06 with major tech names rising. Shares of closed up 2.17 percent, chip-maker SK Hynix added 4.95 percent and LG Electronics rose 1.66 percent. But major carmaker Hyundai Motor fell 1.57 percent and the state-run Korea Electric Power Corporation declined 1.6 percent.

Meanwhile, stock market operator Korea Exchange is reportedly looking into Merrill Lynch's Seoul operation over alleged unfair stock trades.

In Australia, the benchmark ASX 200 declined 60.6 points, or 0.96 percent, to close at 6,284.4, with most sectors falling. The energy sector was down 1.79 percent, materials was lower by 1.26 percent and the heavily weighted financials subindex fell 1.33 percent. Major banking and mining stocks were down.

The Australian dollar traded at $0.7351 at 2:57 p.m. HK/SIN, following the release of the August policy meeting minutes by the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA). The central bank said that since progress on unemployment and inflation was set to be gradual, there was "no strong case" to adjust the monetary policy in the near term.

Earlier this month, RBA left the cash rate unchanged at 1.5 percent and said that business conditions in the economy remained positive while non-mining business investment was increasing. But the bank cautioned against uncertainty in the outlook for household consumption amid high debt levels.

Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull also survived a leadership challenge for the Liberal Party by Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton, according to reports. Turnbull won by 48 votes to Dutton's 35.

In company news, global mining giant BHP announced earnings for the year ended Jun. 30. The miner said its underlying profit rose 33 percent from $6.73 billion to $8.93 billion for the fiscal year. But that number still missed an estimate of $9.27 billion that analysts polled by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S predicted.

"Across our dramatically simplified portfolio of tier one assets, we see this year's strong momentum carried into the medium term," Andrew Mackenzie, CEO of BHP, said in a statement.

BHP shares closed down 1.87 percent.