With traders beginning to wind down ahead of the festive season, analysts said trade was thinner and markets more susceptible to swings, but the mood has become increasingly glum as central banks start paring their huge financial support to fight inflation.
At the same time, economies are taking a hit as the fast-spreading Omicron coronavirus variant forces governments to reimpose containment measures and consumers are staying at home.
"Omicron remains a concern and cases are on the rise," said Robert Schein of Blanke Schein Wealth Management. "Investors should be prepared for Covid to continue to be a main factor in market performance heading into 2022."
"After the bull run we've seen over the past 21 months, investors aren't as used to prolonged periods of volatility."
Investors got another negative lead from Wall Street where all three main indexes ended sharply lower on Friday after the Federal Reserve said it would speed up the taper of its bond-buying programme and indicated three interest rate hikes before the end of 2022.
While the announcement was initially welcomed because it cleared up some policy uncertainty, it signalled the beginning of the end of the era of cheap cash that has helped propel global markets to record or multi-year highs for much of the past two years.
Tokyo and Mumbai shed more than two percent, while Hong Kong fell 1.9 percent and Seoul 1.8 percent. Shanghai, Singapore and Bangkok were more than one percent lower. There were also losses in Sydney, Taipei, Manila and Jakarta, though Wellington edged up.
London, Paris and Frankfurt all tumbled at the open.
Dealers were unmoved by news that China had trimmed a key interest rate by five basis points as it looks to reignite the stuttering economy.
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