Most Southeast Asian stock markets rose on Tuesday after reports said Saudi Arabia was preparing to acknowledge the death of a Saudi journalist in a botched interrogation, easing tensions between the oil-rich kingdom and the Western world.
Meanwhile, a rebound in Italian assets propped up battered equities, with MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rising 0.25 percent, pulling away from a 19-month trough touched on Thursday.
The Indonesian and Vietnamese indexes led gains in the region, settling 1.3 percent and 1.2 percent higher, respectively.
Document management services provider Multifiling Mitra Indonesia jumped 9.74 percent while financing company Trust Finance Indonesia rose as much as 12.82 percent during the day.
Philippine shares, the worst performers in the region with a 19 percent year-to-date fall as of last close, rose 0.9 percent with gains across sectors. Lender BDO Unibank Inc
closed 1.9 percent higher while beverage and food maker Universal Robina Corp rose nearly 4 percent.
"Prices are attractive, the market could take this as an opportunity to buy," said Fio Dejesus, an equity research analyst with RCBC securities.
"The decline in the market is huge year-to-date. So, some players might be thinking that the headwinds are already priced in."
Malaysian shares gained 0.5 percent while Thai shares session marginally higher after see-sawing in the session.
Singapore, the sole loser in the region, was down 0.3 percent. "Singapore's volumes have come down, so I feel there's a wait-and-see approach among investors," said Joel Ng, Analyst at KGI Securities.
Singapore markets have slipped about 10.83 percent this year as of Monday's close.