Investing.com - Asian shares held weaker on Thursday as investors kept an eye on the sustainability of renewed dollar gains with the yen Aussie and yuan weaker.
The Nikkei 225 was down 0.36%, while the S&P/ASX 200 fell 1.25%.
In China, brokerages and commodity companies led the market lower with the Shanghai Composite Index last down 1.28%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index fell 1.08%.
The yuan fell and was on track for a fourth consecutive decline against the dollar Thursday after the People's Bank of China set a weaker fixing at 6.5150 compared with 6.4936 - a depreciation of 0.33% and the biggest daily decrease since early January.
Overnight, U.S. stocks were lower after the close on Wednesday, as losses in the Oil & Gas, Basic Materials and Technology sectors led shares lower.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 0.45%, while the S&P 500 index lost 0.64%, and the NASDAQ Composite index lost 1.10%.