The South Korean won fell more than half a percent on Tuesday as Asian currencies were weighed down by the US dollar's rise to a four-month peak against the euro and a two-week high versus the Japanese yen.
The Singapore dollar slipped past the 1.6800 per US dollar level to hit a one-week low of 1.6855 per US dollar.
The Taiwan dollar hit a five-session low on the weaker side of 33.00 to a US dollar, before paring some losses. The Philippine peso touched a one-week trough just five centavos shy of its all-time low of 56.45, before ending a touch higher.
The Thai baht traded in a narrow range around 39.15 per dollar offshore, with local markets closed for a holiday. The markets will reopen on Wednesday.
The Indonesian rupiah edged slightly higher to the stronger side of the 8,600 per dollar level as local trade resumed after a generally smooth and peaceful parliamentary election on Monday.
Vote counting was still under way, but with secular parties such as Golkar or President Megawati Sukarnoputri's PDI-P likely to emerge as winners, analysts did not expect any major change in economic policy.
"The first reaction in the market has been on the peaceful way these elections have gone and that is positive for Indonesia in itself," said Sameer Goel, strategist at Bank of America in Singapore.
However, he added that too few votes had been counted to form an opinion on how these elections would affect the presidential vote, due in July, which was what the market would look for next.
Dealers said the US dollar's broad rally, after Friday's surprisingly strong US jobs data, had prompted players to trim long positions in Asian regional currencies.
But their broader outlook remained positive, with signs of a pick-up in the US economy - a major export market for Asia - ultimately boding well for the region, analysts said.
"Asia does remain a reflation trade," Goel said, referring to the environment of strong growth and rising inflation.
"It appears that this is not a jobless recovery after all. Clearly, this should do much to offset previous concerns about the sustainability of the global recovery. As a result, we would expect investors to refocus on their favourite reflation trades and start adding to them again," he said.
The won fell sharply to catch up with other regional currencies as local trade resumed after a holiday on Monday.
The won traded as low as 1,151.6 per dollar, its weakest since last Wednesday, against Friday's high of 1,140.9 not seen since November 2000.But the currency was still Asia's top performer, with over 3.6 percent gains so far this year.
The Taiwan dollar is the next top gainer with close to three percent gains this year.
Dealers said the downside for both the won and Taiwan dollar should be limited given strong foreign investment flows to their rising stock markets.
Foreign investors have bought a total of $331 million worth of Taiwan stocks this week and picked up $674 million of Korean shares on Tuesday alone.
However, dealers said the Sing dollar was likely to fall further as it was still on the stronger side of a policy band.
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), which manages the Sing dollar in an undisclosed trade-weighted band, is due to issue a half-yearly monetary policy statement on April 12.
Tame inflation and high unemployment meant the central bank was unlikely to tighten policy via a strong currency.
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