Asia steady, but peso hits six-year high

SINGAPORE, May 15 (Reuters) The Philippine peso rose to 46.95 per dollar on Tuesday, setting a six-year high as investors bought the high-yielding currency, enabling it to catch up with other Asian currencies after a holiday for elections on Monday.

Traders in Manila said the elections had passed off relatively smoothly for the Philippines, which helped the peso.

Most other Asian currencies were steady, including the Indonesian rupiah , which gained more than 0.8 percent versus the dollar on Monday as investors returned to high-yielding assets after a brief sell-off on Friday.

The peso strengthened beyond the 47-per-dollar level for the first time since early 2001 and was up nearly 0.5 percent from Friday's close.

Philippine markets were closed on Monday, when elections to the 275-member House of Representatives, half the 24-seat Senate and about 18,000 local government posts were held.

About 125 people have been killed in campaign violence and during polling, but that was below the 189 killed during the last election in 2004.

''The election went smoothly, so the market is selling dollar/peso,'' said a trader in Manila.

The rupiah hovered near 8,800 per dollar, while the Malaysian ringgit stuck on the weaker side of 3.4 per dollar, failing to break the psychological level.

Some traders said the authorities had been trying to prevent the ringgit from rising above that key level, even though officials have said repeatedly they were not worried about the currency's strength.

Elsewhere, the Taiwan dollar slipped as low as 33.355 per U.S. dollar, its weakest level in 1-{ years, tracking a weaker Japanese yen and weighed down by domestic politics.

CURRENCIES VS U.S. DOLLAR Change on the day at 0257 GMT Currency Latest bid Previous day Pct Move Japan yen 120.31 120.26 -0.04 Sing dlr 1.5151 1.5143 -0.05 Taiwan dlr 33.351 33.313 -0.11 Korean won 924.10 923.90 -0.02 Baht 34.47 34.44 -0.09 Peso 46.97 47.18 +0.44 Rupiah 8800.00 8795.00 -0.06 Ringgit 3.4003 3.4003 +0.00 Yuan 7.6879 7.6803 -0.10 Change so far in 2007 Currency Latest bid End prev year Pct Move Japan yen 120.31 119.01 -1.08 Sing dlr 1.5151 1.5337 +1.23 Taiwan dlr 33.351 32.585 -2.30 Korean won 924.10 0929.50 +0.58 Baht 34.47 36.08 +4.67 Peso 46.97 49.03 +4.39 Rupiah 8800.00 8988.00 +2.14 Rupee 40.87 44.26 +8.28 Ringgit 3.4003 3.5270 +3.73 Yuan 7.6879 7.8051 +1.52 REUTERS PYB SSC1155