Pedestrians stand in front of a share price board in Tokyo. The Nikkei-225 index ended down 254.92 points to 14,808.85 yesterday.

AFP/Tokyo

Asian markets retreated yesterday, taking their lead from a heavy sell-off on Wall Street despite a healthy US jobs report, while the dollar struggled to regain losses suffered against the yen at the end of last week.

Tokyo’s benchmark Nikkei-225 index fell 1.69%, or 254.92 points, to finish at 14,808.85; Sydney recovered most of its early losses to close down 0.17%, or 9.1 points, at 5,413.7.

Hong Kong’s benchmark Hang Seng Index lost 0.59%, or 132.93 points, to end at 22,377.15, while Seoul closed flat, inching up 0.08%, or 1.61 points, to close at 1,989.70.

Shanghai, Shenzhen and Bangkok were closed for public holidays.

In other markets, Jakarta gained 1.30%, or 63.10 points, to 4,921.04; Bank Negara Indonesia climbed 0.49% to 5,150 rupiah, while Hero Supermarket lost 2.61% to 2,800 rupiah.

Kuala Lumpur jumped 0.34%, or 6.29 points, to 1,862.90; Tenaga Nasional gained 3.0% to 11.68 ringgit, Telekom Malaysia rose 0.86% to 5.86 while Public Bank fell 2.50% to 20.28 ringgit.

Singapore eased 0.60%, or 19.13 points, to 3,193.59; Singapore Airlines lost 0.87% to Sg$10.30 while DBS bank dropped 0.48% to Sg$16.47.

Manila closed up 0.81%, or 53.20 points, to 6,614.40; Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co was steady at 2,736 pesos while Ayala Corp inched up 0.17% to 606 pesos.

Wellington fell 0.94%, or 48.06 points, to 5,075.84; Telecom Corp was off 0.20% at NZ$2.525 and Fletcher Building down 1.56% at NZ$9.44

Taipei edged down 0.14%, or 12.10 points, to 8,876.44; Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co was 0.84% lower at Tw$117.5 while Hon Hai Precision was up 0.12% at Tw$86.3.

On Friday, the US Labor Department said the world’s number one economy added 192,000 jobs in March—just below forecasts of 195,000 - while the unemployment rate held steady at 6.7%.

While the figure was an improvement on the past three months when the country was hit by a severe winter, the growth rate is unlikely to alter the pace of the Federal Reserve’s stimulus tapering programme.

The dollar sank in New York after the report. A stronger figure would likely have pressed the Fed to wind down its asset purchases quicker, in turn putting upward pressure on interest rates.

The greenback ended Friday at 103.26 yen from 103.88 yen earlier in Tokyo.

The euro fetched $1.3701 in the afternoon yesterday against $1.3704 in US trade, while it was also at 141.17 yen, against 141.50 yen in New York and 142.36 yen in Tokyo Friday.

On Wall Street, the three main indexes tumbled after notching up strong gains through the week.

The Nasdaq plunged 2.60%, while the Dow sank 0.96% and the S&P 500, which saw two record closes in the week, lost 1.25%.

However, analysts said the sell-off was mostly down to shares in big-name firms such as Facebook, Netflix and Google being overvalued rather than investors reacting to economic data.