Investing.com - Asian shares were mixed on Thursday as investors digested regional data points and policies as looked ahead to next week's vote by the U.K. on whether to remain in the European Union.
The S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.30%, while the Nikkei 225 dropped 2.10% after the Bank of Japan held steady with the yen up sharply.
The Shanghai Composite Index eased 0.42%, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index was last down 2.08%.
The yuan rose against the dollar Thursday morning after the People's Bank of China strengthened the fixing at 6.5739 compared with Wednesday's midpoint of 6.6001.
The Bank of Japan as expected voted to keep the monetary base at ¥80 trillion annually along with negative rates at minus 0.1% on Thursday as it signaled that inflation expectations have weakened.
In Australia, employment change figures for May showed a gain of 17,900 jobs, higher than the 15,000 jobs expected for an unemployment rate of 5.7% as seen.
In the May Statement on Monetary Policy, the RBA said it expects the unemployment rate to remain around the current rate until mid-2017, before
declining gradually. Comments from RBA Assistant Governor Christopher Kent were noted.
Overnight, U.S. stocks closed slightly lower on Wednesday, turning negative just before the close of trading, after the Federal Reserve held short-term interest rates steady at its June monetary policy meeting.
Stocks on the major indices were relatively flat following the Fed's release at 2:00 p.m. eastern standard time, before a wave of sell orders pushed stocks into negative territory in the final half-hour of trading. Earlier, the Federal Open Market Committee voted unanimously to leave the target range of its Federal Funds Rate unchanged at a level between 0.25 and 0.50%. Notably, the FOMC downgraded its view of labor market conditions and lowered its long-term path for the Federal Funds Rate over the next two years.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 34.65 or 0.20% to 17,640.17, while the NASDAQ Composite index dropped 8.62 or 0.18% to 4,834.93, each suffering their fifth straight losing session. The S&P 500 Composite index, meanwhile, lost 3.82 or 0.18% to 2,071.50, as six of 10 sectors closed in the red. Stocks in the Health Care and Utilities industries lagged, each falling by more than 0.60%. Stocks in the Basic Materials, Financials and Consumer Goods sectors led.