Asia close: Stocks end mixed with central banks in focus

Asia Pacific stocks finished the day on a mixed note, taking their cue from a similarly inconclusive trading session on Wall Street the night before.

"With Central Bank hawks soaring overhead, investors' discussions naturally gravitate to the trade-off between growth and inflation and the scope for sticky price persistence," said Stephen Innes, managing director at SPI Asset Management.

"[...] But with Chair Powell in "hike until inflation data proves me wrong mode," it could mean markets will ultimately be capped by the prospects for interest rates to remain higher for longer than the market has been pricing."

In remarks made at the European Central Bank's semi-annual policy meeting the day before, Federal Reserve chairman, Jerome Powell, said that investors should not rule out the possibility of back-to-back interest rate hikes at upcoming meetings.

Japan's benchmark Nikkei-225 ended the session little changed, edging up by 0.12% to 33,234.14, but the Shanghai Stock Exchange's Composite Index dipped 0.22% to 3,182.38.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng meanwhile fell 1.24% to 18,934.36.

It was a similar story in South Korea with the Kospi giving back 0.55% to end at 2,550.02.

Meanwhile, the US dollar drifted down by 0.18% to 144.22 versus Japan's yen and by 0.06% to 7.2351 against the Chinese yuan.

Worth noting, investors were waiting for key important inflation readings due out on 30 June in the States.

In the background, Chinese lawmakers reportedly approved a new foreign policy law allowing for the use of a broad array of existing options to rebuff Western curbs.