China and Hong Kong stocks held firm on Tuesday, bucking modest losses across Asia after Wall Street fell overnight and with investors awaiting the upcoming Politburo meeting for policy direction.

** The Shanghai Composite index closed 0.3% higher at 3,299.76 points, while the blue-chip CSI300 index ended little changed.

** Both indexes are now near their highest level since April 3, just ahead of the market slump triggered by U.S. President Donald Trump's "reciprocal tariffs".

** The banking sector and chip stocks climbed 0.7% and 0.4%, respectively, leading the benchmarks higher.

** China's April Politburo meeting, likely to be convened later this week, will be a venue for a reassessment of the tariff situation and for deciding on offsetting policies, analysts at Citi said in a note to clients.

** Investors are now looking out for continued efforts to support asset prices and if there'll be an "opportunistic depreciation" FX policy, among others, they added.

** Also supporting the markets, China's "national team" and private retail investors have been in sync to buy the dip to defend the market as the Sino-U.S. trade conflict shows no signs of easing.

** In Hong Kong, the benchmark Hang Seng Index reversed earlier losses and closed up 0.8%, also its highest level since April 3. The Hang Seng Tech Index climbed 0.2%.

** Limiting gains, China's e-commerce firm JD.com and delivery platform Meituan both tumbled 6.6% as competition heats up between the companies.

** More broadly, other Asian stock markets largely held their ground despite Wall Street's decline overnight.

** MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was little changed. Japan's Nikkei eased 0.2%.

** There's only a "mild risk-off" sentiment in Asia despite a heavy overnight session and the focus ahead will still be the various tariff discussions with the U.S., Wee Khoon Chong, senior markets strategist for APAC at BNY, said in a note.

(Reporting by Jiaxing Li in Hong Kong; Editing by Sonia Cheema and Savio D'Souza)