Asia markets track declines in key Wall Street indexes; investors assess China industrial profits

Asia-Pacific markets largely fell on Tuesday, tracking losses in the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq overnight, while investors assessed industrial profit data out of China.

China’s industrial profits from January to July climbed 3.6% year on year, compared to a 3.5% growth between January and June.

Hong Kong Hang Seng index slipped 0.45%, while the mainland China’s CSI 300 dropped 0.4% after the release.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 was 0.28% lower, while the broad-based Topix was up 0.17%, the only major index in positive territory.

South Korea’s Kospi fell 0.48%, while the small cap Kosdaq saw a loss of 0.45%.

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 reversed gains to fall marginally, down 0.1%. The index is close to breaching its all-time closing high of 8,114.7, set on Aug. 1.

Late Monday, oil prices continued to rise after Israel and Hezbollah traded strikes over the weekend, with U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude climbing 3.5% to close at $77.42 per barrel and Brent crude up 3.05% at $81.43 a barrel, its highest in about two weeks.

Oil prices later pared some gains on Tuesday, with WTI futures trading at $77.02 a barrel and Brent at $81.07 a barrel.

Overnight in the U.S., the Dow Jones Industrial Average on Wall Street reached new highs, closing up 65.44 points, or 0.16%, at 41,240.52. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite fell 0.32% and 0.85%, respectively.

—CNBC’s Lisa Kailai Han and Alex Harring contributed to this report.