PT Gudang Garam (GGRM.JK), Indonesia's largest publicly listed cigarette maker by sales, posted Tuesday an 8.3% decline in first-half net profit as its cost of sales rose.

Taiwan's preliminary gross domestic product data released Tuesday showed the economy shrank 0.16% in the second quarter from a year earlier.

Cigarette maker PT Hanjaya Mandala Sampoerna (HMSP.JK) said Tuesday its first-half net profit rose 29% to 4.88 trillion rupiah ($513 million) from IDR3.79 trillion a year earlier owing to higher sales.

The recent fall in metals prices could benefit Australia's farmers as banks dedicate more lending to the agriculture sector, the Deputy Chief Executive of Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. said Tuesday.

Brazilian mobile telecom operator TIM Participacoes (TIMP3.BR, TSU) posted net profit of 346.8 million Brazilian reais ($170 million) in the second quarter, down 0.9% from the same period a year ago, the company reported Monday.

Shares of Hitachi Ltd. rose in early Tuesday trading, a day after the Japanese tech and industrial conglomerate posted a more than doubling of its group net profit for the April-June quarter.

The U.S. will this week host a meeting of about 16 nations opposed to a controversial European Union carbon tax on airlines, aiming to draw up an alternative plan, a U.S. official said Monday.

Japanese stocks dropped in early Tuesday trade, as banks traded lower after Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc. posted a 43% drop in profit, and some tech exporters suffered from a stronger yen.

Australian shares gained early Tuesday, shrugging off mild losses on Wall Street overnight.

Panasonic Corp. will likely post a swing back to profit in the April-June quarter, with group net income of 10 billion yen ($128 million), compared to a �30.3 billion loss in the year-earlier period, according to a Nikkei news report Tuesday.