By MarketWatch TOKYO (MarketWatch) - The dollar gained against its major counterparts in Asian trading Thursday, gaining traction against the yen as repatriation-fund flows eased on the session of Japan's new fiscal year. The yen tends to get seasonal support as Japanese companies repatriate overseas profits before their business year ends on March 31. The dollar (CUR_USDYEN 93.3900, -0.0500, -0.0535%) bought 93.57 yen, up from 93.43 yen in late North American trading Wednesday. Earlier Thursday, the dollar rose to a three-month high of 93.62 yen, according to FactSet Research data. But the yen pared losses after the Bank of Japan's quarterly tankan survey of business sentiment showed significantly less pessimism among the nation's biggest firms, even as obstacles to recovery remained. See full story on Bank of Japan tankan. The dollar index (DXY 81.02, -0.05, -0.06%) , which measures the greenback against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, rose to 81.151 from 81.062 late Wednesday. The euro (CUR_EURUSD 1.3496, -0.0012, -0.0889%) slipped to $1.3483 from $1.3512 late Wednesday, a session in which the European unit notched its biggest-one day gain in two weeks. On Wednesday, the dollar retreated after an ADP report showed U.S. companies had cut jobs rather than added them in March and after better European economic data lured investors back to the beaten-down euro. See Wednesday's Currencies report.

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