Emerging FX-Asia steady, Singapore dollar rebounds

Singapore, May 3 (Reuters) The Singapore dollar bounced back today as banks took profits from the currency's recent weakness, while other Asian currencies were mostly steady with markets in China and Japan closed for holidays.

The Singapore dollar rose as far as 1.5232 to the US dollar, a day after it slipped to 1.5283 per US dollar, its weakest level since mid-March, as some overseas banks moved to cover their short positions in the US currency.

''They were buying (the US dollar) in the last few days, so they are just taking some profits,'' said a dealer in Singapore.

Analysts said the near-term upside of the Singapore dollar may be limited by low local interest rates, central bank intervention and the US dollar's gains versus the Japanese yen.

Singapore's central bank, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), manages the currency within an undisclosed, trade-weighted band. In its semi-annual policy review last month, MAS stuck to a policy of gradual appreciation of the currency within this band.

Claudio Piron and Yen Ping Ho at JPMorgan estimated that the Singapore dollar's nominal effective exchange rate (NEER) had slipped into the bottom half of the band for the first time since December 2005.

''The local rates decline was likely the dominant driver.

The more cautious read to the MAS statement last month could have contributed in part to this post-statement decline,'' they said in a research note.

But analysts also saw opportunities to buy into the currency.

''As the central bank's stance is still to go for the Singapore dollar's appreciation to curb rising inflation, further weakening of SGD would present a good entry point to enter a Singapore dollar-basket trade,'' Shiang Hue Lye, currency strategist at ABN AMRO, said in a research note.

Elsewhere, the Philippine peso rose about a tenth of a percent to 47.64 per dollar, but most Asian currencies were little changed as Japan's markets were closed on Thursday and Friday and China's markets are closed for the Labour Day holiday week.

The South Korean won inched up to about 928.9 per dollar after weakening briefly in early trade amid caution over dollar-buying intervention by the authorities.

South Korea's foreign exchange reserves swelled by about 3.3 billion dollar in April, the fastest in four months, central bank data showed on Thursday, signalling increased central bank intervention to curb the won's strength. CURRENCIES VS US DOLLAR Change on the day at 0306 GMT Currency Latest bid Previous day Pct Move Japan yen 120.17 119.91 -0.22 Sing dlr 1.5235 1.5271 +0.24 Taiwan dlr 33.288 33.286 -0.01 Korean won 928.90 929.90 +0.11 Baht 34.76 34.76 +0.00 Peso 47.63 47.71 +0.17 Rupiah 9069.00 9075.00 +0.07 Ringgit 3.4210 3.4220 +0.03 Change so far in 2007 Currency Latest bid End prev year Pct Move Japan yen 120.17 119.01 -0.97 Sing dlr 1.5235 1.5337 +0.67 Taiwan dlr 33.288 32.585 -2.11 Korean won 928.90 0929.50 +0.06 Baht 34.76 36.08 +3.80 Peso 47.63 49.03 +2.94 Rupiah 9069.00 8988.00 -0.89 Rupee 41.21 44.26 +7.39 Ringgit 3.4210 3.5270 +3.10 Yuan 7.7039 7.8051 +1.31 REUTERS PM DS1201