The Philippine peso and the Singapore dollar hit their strongest in more than two and a half years versus the yen and the South Korean won touched a 20-month peak to the Japanese unit.
Japan's next prime minister, Shinzo Abe, on Monday again urged the central bank to ease policy, saying it should respect Sunday's election result which showed public support for his calls for more aggressive monetary stimulus.
Yuna Park, a currency and bond analyst at Dongbu Securities in Seoul, said "Expectations for the BOJ's easing have been priced in to some degree. But once the BOJ acts, funds with low interest rates are likely to flow to emerging Asian markets."
Also helping keep Asian currencies firmer is the new round of monetary stimulus announced last week by the US Federal Reserve, Park added.
Regional currencies have been major beneficiaries of policy easing by major central banks as their stimulus spurred investors to seek higher-yielding currencies in Asia with stronger economic and fiscal fundamentals.
Still, investors are staying cautious over possible intervention by the region's central banks to stem appreciation of their currencies.
Some dealers and analysts said the results of the Japanese election have already been factored in, although emerging Asian currencies are likely to rise further against the yen in the long-term.
They said actual demand for emerging Asian currencies against the yen was not strong.
"Bias is still to sell the yen/Asia. But as anticipated Japanese easing has been priced in by now, I don't expect much more selling at present," said a European bank dealer in Singapore.
WON
The won hit 12.7343 to the yen, its strongest since April 11, 2011 and also gained against the dollar in subdued trading.
But the South Korean unit gave up some of initial gains on caution over potential intervention by the foreign exchange authorities, dealers said.
"The authorities are likely to step in the market strongly, although there are few factors to push down the won," said a South Korean bank dealer in Seoul.
PHILIPPINE PESO
The Philippine peso rose as interbank speculators bought it with most corporates seen having filled their dollar demand, dealers said.
Market players were cautious over possible intervention by the central bank to slow down the peso's strength, but so far no dollar bids had been spotted from it, dealers added.
"They would save their bullets until we see 40.90-40.95," said a foreign bank dealer in Manila, referring to the peso's levels against the dollar.
The dealer also said the peso is unlikely to strengthen past 40.85 to the greenback this month as the Philippine currency is not immune to some profit-taking, especially on the fixed income side.
But he stayed optimistic on the peso for the longer term, expecting it to head to 40.25 in the first quarter of 2013 and saying it is good to buy the peso to the yen around the current levels.
Remittances from Filipinos overseas in October grew 8.8 percent from a year ago to a record of $1.93 billion, central bank data showed.
The peso touched 0.4869 to the Japanese currency, its strongest since since May 2010.
BAHT
The baht gained on demand from Japanese banks, although Thai importers bought dollars for payments, limiting the baht's upside, dealers said.
A senior trader in Bangkok said the bids of Japanese names might be linked to selling yen/baht. The baht strengthened as much as 0.5 percent to 36.269 to the yen, its strongest since April 27, 2011.
The Thai currency also found support from exporters and stock inflows. But investors were cautious over possible intervention by the central bank to check the baht's strength.
TAIWAN DOLLAR
The Taiwan dollar advanced on exporters' demand for settlements in thin trading.
Investors, however, hesitated to chase the island's currency further, especially around 29.050 per US dollar on caution over potential steps by the central banks to check its appreciation.
The Taiwan dollar hit 0.3443 to the yen, its strongest since April 13, 2011, but investors hesitated to push the local unit higher against the Japanese currency as Sunday's election result had been widely expected, dealers said.
SINGAPORE DOLLAR
The Singapore dollar touched 1.4459 to the yen, its highest since May 2010.
But against the US dollar, the city-state's currency eased as non-oil exports in November fell from a year earlier.
Singapore's non-oil domestic exports in November slid 2.5 percent from a year ago, missing market forecasts for 1.9 percent growth.
Center>Copyright Reuters, 2012