Most of the Asian equity benchmarks are trading lower in the early deals on Friday, as investors turned cautious ahead of the release of the US Labor Department's closely-watched monthly jobs report on Friday. The monthly jobs data could have a significant impact on the outlook for whether the US Federal Reserve will raise interest rates at its meeting later this month. The Japanese market fell after a bounce in the yen against the euro and dollar hurt exporters and other index-heavyweights. Investors were also wary ahead of the key US jobs report later in the day, too added pressure on Japanese stocks. The markets in China remained closed on Friday for the Victory Day holiday and will re-open on Monday.
Nikkei 225 slipped 482.21 points or 2.65% to 17,700.18, Hang Seng declined 125.44 points or 0.60% to 20,809.50, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI dropped 6.55 points or 0.41% to 1,596.20, KOSPI Index crumbled 27.19 points or 1.42% to 1,888.34, Straits Times decreased 42.83 points or 1.47% to 2,863.60, Jakarta Composite contracted 6.68 points or 0.15% to 4,426.43 and Taiwan Weighted was down by 68.11 points or 0.84% to 8,027.84.