Asian equity markets staged a comeback on Tuesday, with investors encouraged by the upbeat handover from Wall Street.

Major US averages climbed nearly 1 percent or more overnight, helped by gains in energy and healthcare counters.

The Nasdaq Composite led advances with a rise of 1.5 percent, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up 0.9 percent. The S&P 500 gained more than 1 percent to top 2,100 points. The last time the index crossed 2,100 in intraday trade was August 18, and its last close above that level was on August 17.

Mainland stocks edge up

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China's key Shanghai Composite index nudged up 0.1 percent amid jitters surrounding a crackdown on illegal futures trading and ongoing anticorruption investigations into companies such as Dongfeng Motor Group.

According to state-owned Xinhua news agency, the manager of Zexi Investment, Xu Xiang, was detained by police on Sunday. Xu, one of China's largest private money managers, is being investigated on charges of suspected insider trading. Meanwhile, the President of Agricultural Bank of China, Zhang Yun, was taken away to assist authorities with an investigation, the Financial Times reported Monday, citing local media reports from Sina Finance and QQ Finance.

The latest developments come as Beijing intensified a probe on alleged market manipulation following a dramatic meltdown in its equity markets earlier in June and July.

Meanwhile, the Communist Party's anti-graft regulator said Monday it is investigating the president of Dongfeng Motor Group —China's second-biggest automaker by sales— for "suspected severe violation of discipline". Discipline violations generally refer to corruption.

Shares of the Shenzhen-listed automaker retreated 2.5 percent early Tuesday in reaction to the news.

ASX jumps 1.2 percent

A broad-based rally led Australia's S&P ASX 200 index up from Monday's three-week low, as investors await the Reserve Bank of Australia's (RBA) policy decision due at 2.30pm local time.

The central bank is expected to hold interest rates steady at its monthly meeting today, according to a report by Natixis dated October 29.

The cash rate is already at a historically low level and there are no specially negative news coming from the real economy or the currency, we argue that the RBA will prefer to save its ammunition by keeping the cash rate on hold at 2.00 percent at the November 3 meeting," wrote Natixis' chief economist for Asia Pacific, Alicia Garcia Herrero.

Also grabbing attention is the Melbourne Cup, Australia's premier annual horse race, which could result in thin trading volumes on Tuesday.

Westpac rallied 1.3 percent, a day after tumbling 2.5 percent on the back of delivering its annual cash profit numbers. Australia and New Zealand Bank, Commonwealth Bank of Australia and National Australia Bank jumped between 0.9 and 1.4 percent.

Market bellwether BHP Billiton advanced 1.6 percent, while rivals such as Rio Tinto and Fortescue Metals piled on 1 percent each.

Oil and gas producer Santos extended gains by surging 3.8 percent, a day after announcing the sale of its Stag oil field to Malaysia's Sona Petroleum.

Gold-related counters were mixed after gold prices slipped to four-week lows in the prior trading session. Evolution Mining and Endeavour Mining dropped 1.9 and 0.3 percent respectively, while Newcrest Mining clawed back early losses to tick up 0.2 percent.

Kospi gains 0.8 percent

South Korea's Kospi index headed north, thanks to hefty buy orders for the shares of carmakers.

Hyundai Motor and Kia Motors climbed 2.5 and 3.4 percent respectively, given a lift by industry data released on Monday which showed October auto sales in South Korea rose 8.7 percent from a year ago period. Ssangyong Motor gained 0.4 percent.

However, the bourse's heaviest weighted stock Samsung Electronics eased 0.7 percent.

On the domestic data front, inflation in Asia's fourth-biggest economy unexpectedly rose at the fastest pace in almost a year, according to official data released prior to Tuesday's market open. The consumer price index (CPI) increased 0.9 percent in October from a year earlier, beating expectations for a 0.8 percent gain and compared with a 0.6 percent advance in September.

Elsewhere in the region, Hong Kong releases September retail sales at 4.30 am local time. Markets in Japan are closed for the Culture Day holiday.

First Published:Nov 3, 2015 7:32 AM IST