Most Asian markets retreated Thursday after authorities in South Korea and New Zealand voiced their preference for an accommodative policy stance, citing concerns about economic uncertainties.

The statements, coming after Wall Street stocks gave up most of their gains as the U.S. Federal Reserve said it would maintain low interest rates, added to investor caution.

"Its highly likely that after the non-event Fed decision that Asian markets will trade flat to slightly lower in coming days, with the next catalyst for stocks to move definitively in a particular direction being the U.S. non-farms payroll report due out Friday morning (U.S. time)," IG Markets analyst Cameron Peacock wrote in a report. "The current pessimism gripping the market hasnt been helped by comments out of South Korea suggesting it was "unclear" whether the current economic recovery can be maintained."

Chinese stocks outperformed amid expectations of continued improvement in several economic data due to be released next week.

The Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.9% to 3155.05, taking gains into a fifth successive session. The advance helped to limit losses in Hong Kong, where the Hang Seng Index slipped 0.6% to 21479.08.

Japans Nikkei 225 Average dropped 1.3% to 9717.44, Australias S&P/ASX 200, Taiwans Taiex and New Zealands NZX 50 fell 0.7% each, South Koreas Kospi shed 1.8% and Philippines main index added 1.3%.

In afternoon trading, Indias Sensex lost 0.8%, Singapores Straits Times Index slid 0.8%, Thailands SET Index dropped 0.4% and Indonesias JSX index declined 0.5%.

"Further strong equity gains are hard to justify with higher valuations across the board in Asia - expectations will need to be moderated," said DBS Asia equity strategist Joanne Goh in Singapore.

U.S. stock futures pointing to a lower opening on Wall Street also weighed on sentiment, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average futures recently down 39 points in screen trade.

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