EMERGING MARKETS-Asia FX dips on stronger dollar, S.Korea shares slide most

Oct 5 (Reuters) - Most emerging Asian currencies weakened on Tuesday as the dollar rose ahead of a key U.S. payrolls report this week, while South Korean stocks slumped on the back of an overnight selloff on tech-heavy Nasdaq. South Korean equities ended at a nearly seven-month low, tracking weakness on Wall Street, where investors dumped big tech names as U.S. Treasury yields rose amid Washington wrangling over the debt ceiling. Concerns that elevated inflation could bring forward the timeline for Federal Reserve tapering have also recently supported bond yields. Markets are also eyeing September employment data this Friday for signals on the pace of the Fed's tapering timeline. A strong result could pave the way for the Fed to begin reducing its $120 billion in monthly bond purchases in November, the central bank indicated in its September meeting, which may sap appetite for the region's riskier assets. "Barring a huge miss in the non-farm payrolls this Friday, expect the market to continue buying into the hawkish Fed storyline," OCBC said, adding that this would support the dollar. The Philippine peso and South Korean won firmed around 0.2% each, while most other currencies dipped against the greenback. OPEC+ also ignored calls from the United States and India to boost oil output as the global economy recovers, lifting crude prices to their highest in at least three years and raising further inflation concerns. Inflation in the Philippines, meanwhile, eased in September from a three-year peak, giving the central bank room to maintain its policy support to help the Southeast Asian nation's economy recover from the pandemic. Brokerage UOB expects the Philippine central bank to maintain its accommodative monetary policy stance until mid-2022, given the uneven recovery. In Singapore, shares fell 1.4% after the previous day's rally. The city-state's stock exchange operator was the biggest drag, falling around 3% ahead of an annual general meeting on Thursday, while real estate stocks also weighed. Worries about debt defaults by Chinese property developers also sapped investor sentiment amid fresh credit rating downgrades and uncertainty about the fate of China Evergrande Group as it scrambles to raise cash by selling assets. Chinese markets are closed for a holiday until Thursday. HIGHLIGHTS: ** Frasers Logistics & Commercial Trust and Mapletree Logistics Trust are among the top losers in Singapore ** Indonesian 10-year benchmark yields down 1.5 basis points at 6.319%​​ ** Australia's central bank sticks with low rates, dodges high house prices Asia stock indexes and currencies at 0704 GMT COUNTRY FX FX FX INDEX STOCKS STOCKS RIC DAILY % YTD % DAILY % YTD % Japan -0.31 -7.17 -2.19 1.38 China - +1.25 - 2.74 India -0.23 -1.90 0.06 26.61 Indonesia +0.06 -1.52 -0.88 5.15 Malaysia -0.16 -3.79 0.12 -6.33 Philippines +0.32 -5.19 0.29 -2.22 S.Korea +0.00 -8.62 -1.89 3.09 Singapore -0.11 -2.72 -0.80 7.77 Taiwan -0.10 +2.11 0.32 11.73 Thailand -0.03 -11.33 0.57 12.02 (Reporting by Nikhil Kurian Nainan in Bengaluru; editing by Ana Nicolaci and Ramakrishnan M.)