Asian Stock Market: Drifts lower amid steady US dollar, risk-off mood

• Asia-pacific kickstarts the fresh trading month on a lower note.
• US dollar gains on Fed’s official hawkish view and risk aversion.
• Asia’s factories and industry growth momentum weaken on rising costs, new COVID-19 curbs.

Asian stock market trades on a lower note on Thursday diverging from its Wall street counterpart. The US dollar stands strong near 12-weeks high amid reduced risk-appetite among investors.

MSCI'S broadest index of Asia-pacific shares outside Japan traded lower and fell 0.2%.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 lost 0.3%, while the Topix index edged lower to 0.24%.
Hong Kong markets were shut for a holiday.

The higher costs of raw materials and shortage of semiconductor chips hurt Asia's biggest export economies including Japan, which saw factory activity expanded at the slowest pace in four months in June.

Asia’s factory activity slowed down in June as some countries struggled with rising input costs and newer COVID-19 curbs.

The Shanghai Composite lost 0.1%. The Caixin/Markit  Manufacturing Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) fell to 51.3 in June from the previous month’s reading at 52.0.

Australia’s ASX 200 lost 0.46% as the country imposed fresh COVID-19 lockdowns in its major cities due to the rising spread of the Delta variant.

Slower vaccination rates in the Asia-pacific region and the extension of restrictions to curb the renewed corona cases dent the performance of the Asian stock indices against their peers.

The US Dollar trades higher in the Asian session at 92.40 as investors remain cautious on riskier assets and rush to the safe haven assets.