The Indonesian rupiah was the biggest intra-day gainer, notching up a 0.75 percent appreciation on strong inflows of dollars into the country.
The rupiah was quoted as high as 9,964 per dollar as it rose to the stronger side of 10,000 for the first time since October 6.
Trading in other regionals was driven by remarks an influential economist and adviser to China's central bank, Yu Yongding, made on Monday. Yu said further yuan appreciation was inevitable in the long run, causing yuan premiums to rise in the non-deliverable forward market.
Yuan NDFs showed the currency being quoted at 8.01 per dollar for the three-month maturity, up from 8.0290 on Friday and pricing in a 1 percent appreciation.
The Taiwan dollar rallied about 0.2 percent from the previous session's one-year low of 33.80, helped also by data showing foreigners turned net buyers of Taiwan equities on Tuesday after having sold a hefty $1.2 billion in the previous 9 sessions.
Analysts said market reaction to Yu's comments showed how sensitive traders were to developments in China.
"It was clear that this person is not a policy maker, yet people were more than happy to chase dollar/yen down," said Mirza Baig, Deutsche Bank's Asian currency strategist.
Analysts at UBS said the remarks had helped the yen and won overcome some weakness, but were unlikely to bolster expectations for a yuan revaluation.
"Yu Yongding has earlier made similar remarks that bear relevance to the long term," UBS said.
"China revaluation rumours and rhetoric around that should be expected ahead of the US treasury report on trading partner currency practices, which is reportedly due in November, but we don't expect substantial action from China."
Traders in Jakarta speculated that dollar inflows were from Singapore's United Overseas Bank Ltd (UOB), which has bid for 47 percent of Indonesia's PT Bank Buana Indonesia Tbk through a tender offer.
UOB already controls 53 percent of Bank Buana The value of the deal was around $163.8 million.
Other Asian currencies saw lacklustre trading with the Japanese yen also steady around 115.40/45 per dollar.
The yen was above this week's lows, close to 116 a dollar, but off overnight highs near 115, with the dollar struggling for direction after the nomination of White House economic adviser Ben Bernanke as the next Federal Reserve chairman.
The Philippine peso rallied.
The Korean won rose nearly a percent from Monday's trough near 1,062, which was its weakest level in 2005, and stalled around 1,053 a dollar. South Korea's economy grew at its fastest pace in nearly two years in the third quarter, exceeding forecasts, data showed on Tuesday.
Baig said Bernanke's nomination did not have any immediate implications for Asian currencies.
"The dollar story says it all. Bernanke is on the margin slightly less hawkish than Greenspan but he has said he will continue in the near term with the same policies," he said.