EM ASIA FX-Solid U.S. housing data, Greece caution hurt Asia FX, rupiah exception

* Rupiah up on bond inflows, short-covering

* Won slips; weak yen boosts S.Korea intervention caution

* Singapore dollar down, May core inflation at 5-year low

(Adds text, updates prices)

By Jongwoo Cheon

SINGAPORE, June 23 (Reuters) - Most emerging Asian

currencies slid on Tuesday as solid U.S. housing data powered

the dollar, while a potential deal to avert a Greek debt default

was treated with caution.

Signs of stabilisation in China's manufacturing sector

failed to cheer emerging Asian currencies as the factory

activity in the world's second-largest economy stayed

contracting.

The Indonesian rupiah bucked regional depreciation,

hitting a near two-week high, as bond inflows caused investors

to cut bearish bets on the currency.

South Korea's won fell as a weaker yen

boosted wariness of possible intervention by the foreign

exchange authorities to stem its outperformance against the

Japanese currency.

The Singapore dollar weakened as data showed the

city-state's core inflation in May hit a five-year low.

Malaysia's ringgit and Thailand's baht

eased on a broad strength in the U.S. dollar.

The greenback rose against a basket of six major

currencies with the euro falling despite hopes for a deal

to avoid Greece defaulting on upcoming debt repayments.

"Greeks merely passed the ball to the Eurogroup. There is no

deal on the table yet," said Christopher Wong, a senior currency

analyst at Maybank in Singapore.

"Greece's problems won't be solved so quickly, even though a

deal will remove some market concerns."

U.S. home resales surged to a 5-1/2-year high in May,

reviving expectations that the Federal Reserve could raise

interest rates as early as September.

"We are seeing demand for USD return after it was sold off

post last week's FOMC. I expect Asian currencies to weaken

against the USD," said Khoon Goh, senior FX strategist for ANZ

in Singapore, referring to the Federal Open Market Committee

meeting.

The Fed on June 17 signalled that the U.S. central bank may

raise interest rates more slowly than markets had expected,

helping emerging Asian currencies rally.

"We had good U.S. home sales data overnight, and growth as

well as policy divergence continues to favour USD versus Asia

FX," Goh said.

WON

Caution mounted over possible intervention by South Korea's

foreign exchange authorities as the won on Monday

strengthened to 8.8985 per yen, its strongest since June 5 when

the South Korean unit hit a seven-year high versus the yen.

The won's strength against the yen has been headache to the

authorities as South Korean exporters compete against Japanese

rivals for various products such as cars.

The South Korean currency on Tuesday weakened versus the

yen.

Against the dollar, the won pared some of earlier losses as

exporters bought it for month-end settlements.

RINGGIT

The ringgit lost ground as a break of 3.7500 per dollar

spurred stop-loss selling.

The Malaysian currency came under further pressure as

investors unloaded it against the neighbouring Singapore dollar

.

RUPIAH

The rupiah rose as much as 0.4 percent to 13,255 per dollar,

its strongest since June 11.

Custodian banks bought the rupiah from its session low of

13,320, traders said. Foreign investors looked to participate in

the government's bond auction with an indicative target of 12

trillion rupiah ($904.8 million) later in the day for higher

yields, they added.

Most government bond prices rose, while the rupiah

strengthened in non-deliverable forwards markets.

Traders, however, doubted the sustainability of such bond

inflows, given a slowdown in Southeast Asia's top economy.

"I don't think there is positive market sentiment other than

yields," said a Jakarta-based currency trader.

"It is still weakening in the long run," the trader said,

referring to the rupiah.

The Indonesian currency was the worst-performing Asian

currency so far this year with a 6.9 percent loss against the

dollar, according to Thomson Reuters data.

CURRENCIES VS U.S. DOLLAR

Change on the day at 0555 GMT

Currency Latest bid Previous day Pct Move

Japan yen 123.67 123.36 -0.25

Sing dlr 1.3387 1.3355 -0.24

Taiwan dlr 30.841 30.970 +0.42

Korean won 1104.50 1098.80 -0.52

Baht 33.72 33.64 -0.23

Peso 45.14 45.05 -0.20

Rupiah 13290.00 13305.00 +0.11

Rupee 63.62 63.51 -0.17

Ringgit 3.7460 3.7320 -0.37

Yuan 6.2089 6.2095 +0.01

Change so far in 2015

Currency Latest bid End prev year Pct Move

Japan yen 123.67 119.66 -3.25

Sing dlr 1.3387 1.3260 -0.95

Taiwan dlr 30.841 31.718 +2.84

Korean won 1104.50 1099.30 -0.47

Baht 33.72 32.90 -2.43

Peso 45.14 44.72 -0.93

Rupiah 13290.00 12380.00 -6.85

Rupee 63.62 63.03 -0.93

Ringgit 3.7460 3.4965 -6.66

Yuan 6.2089 6.2040 -0.08

($1 = 13,262 rupiah)

(Additional reporting by Nilufar Rizki in JAKARTA and IFR

Markets' Catherine Tan; Editing by Eric Meijer)