EM ASIA FX-Won leads gains ahead of U.S. jobs; Asia FX set for weekly losses

* Won, Taiwan dollar up on exporters, capital inflows

* Ringgit leads weekly Asia FX losses

(Adds text, updates prices)

By Jongwoo Cheon

SINGAPORE, March 6 (Reuters) - Most emerging Asian

currencies edged up on Friday to recover some of their weekly

losses as traders covered short positions ahead of U.S. jobs

data later in the day.

South Korea's won outperformed on demand from

exporters for settlements and bond inflows. The Taiwan dollar

rose on foreign stock inflows and exporters' bids.

Investors were focusing on U.S. non-farm payrolls for

February due later in the day. Analysts polled by Reuters expect

payrolls to have increased 240,000 last month and the jobless

rate to have ticked down to 5.6 percent from 5.7 percent.

Higher-than-expected U.S. jobs data would increase

expectations that the Federal Reserve could raise interest rates

earlier, analysts and traders said.

"A solid jobs number will lift U.S. bond yields and the

dollar. That will definitely hurt Asian currencies," said Jeong

My-young, Samsung Futures' research head in Seoul, referring to

growth in U.S. jobs of more than 240,000.

"Such expectations, however, have been priced in pretty

much. So, any disappointment will help Asian currencies

rebound," Jeong added.

Most emerging Asian currencies have already fallen so far

this week as interest rate cuts by China and India spurred

prospects of regional easing.

Sentiment towards regional units deteriorated in the last

two weeks with short positions in the yuan at a near

five-year high, a Reuters poll showed on Thursday.

RINGGIT UNDERPERFORMS

For this week, the Malaysian ringgit led losses

among emerging Asian currencies with a 1.2 percent slide against

the dollar, Thomson Reuters data showed.

The currency came under pressure on concerns over slowing

growth. Malaysia's exports in January fell 0.6 percent from a

year earlier, missing a 3.0 percent growth forecast.

"We still expect ringgit weakness to persist on a

combination of factors including strong USD trend, soft oil

prices for an extended period, vulnerability to foreign fund

outflow and heightened risk of rating downgrade following

contingent liability exposure, lower fiscal revenue," Maybank

said in a client note.

Currency traders have not reacted to news that the country's

indebted and controversy-ridden state investor 1MDB will be left

as a skeletal structure and possibly dissolved under a debt

repayment plan in which most of its assets will be sold.

Traders also ignored the central bank's decision on Thursday

to leave interest rates unchanged, as that was widely expected.

India's rupee fell 0.6 percent as the central bank

was suspected of intervening to stem its appreciation. The

Reserve Bank of India on Wednesday slashed its key policy repo

rate by 25 basis points to 7.5 percent, its second

cut outside of a scheduled meeting this year.

The Singapore dollar has lost 0.5 percent on

increasing expectations of further monetary policy easing in

April by the central bank to support growth.

The Indonesian rupiah has slid 0.4 percent. The

rupiah on Thursday fell below psychological support of 13,000

per dollar for the first time since the 1997-98 Asian financial

crisis, as the central bank said a weaker rupiah helps export

competitiveness improve.

Thailand's baht has eased 0.3 percent, while the

Philippine peso edged weaker.

By contrast, the yuan has gained 0.1 percent as some

investors saw the currency's fall to a two-year low earlier this

week as excessive.

CURRENCIES VS U.S. DOLLAR

Change on the day at 0450 GMT

Currency Latest bid Previous day Pct Move

Japan yen 119.97 120.14 +0.14

Sing dlr 1.3686 1.3710 +0.18

Taiwan dlr 31.440 31.507 +0.21

Korean won 1097.90 1101.30 +0.31

Baht 32.41 32.42 +0.03

Peso 44.11 44.13 +0.03

Rupiah 12975.00 12985.00 +0.08

*Rupee 62.17 62.17 0.00

Ringgit 3.6470 3.6485 +0.04

Yuan 6.2648 6.2662 +0.02

Change so far in 2015

Currency Latest bid End prev year Pct Move

Japan yen 119.97 119.66 -0.26

Sing dlr 1.3686 1.3260 -3.11

Taiwan dlr 31.440 31.718 +0.88

Korean won 1097.90 1099.30 +0.13

Baht 32.41 32.90 +1.51

Peso 44.11 44.72 +1.38

Rupiah 12975.00 12380.00 -4.59

Rupee 62.16 63.03 +1.41

Ringgit 3.6470 3.4965 -4.13

Yuan 6.2648 6.2040 -0.97

* Financial markets in India are closed for a holiday.

(Additional reporting by Roger Tung in TAIPEI; Editing by

Jacqueline Wong)