Asian shares mostly skidded with Wall Street on Thursday while the dollar hovered near a three-week high after US President Donald Trump announced new tariffs on all auto imports, ratcheting up a global trade war that risks fuelling inflation.

In Hong Kong, however, the Hang Seng Index rose 60.54 points, or 0.26 percent, to open at 23,543.86.

Japan's Nikkei fell 1.2 percent, led by heavy losses in automakers.

Toyota Motor shares tumbled 3.4 percent, and both Mazda Motor and Subaru plunged about 6 percent.

South Korea's Kospi dropped 0.7 percent.

Japanese and South Korean automakers have a big presence in the US market.

Shares of Chinese EV makers also fell, with Nio down 2.8 percent and Xpeng 1.1 percent lower. (Reuters/Xinhua)