"The slight tempering in demand for safe havens, which has also softened the dollar at the margin, is also giving a breathing space for Asian currencies, but it is too premature to call for an emphatic and decisive bottoming."
The onshore Chinese yuan advanced as much as 0.3% to 7.0087 per dollar.
The Malaysian ringgit traded slightly lower, a day after Mahathir Mohamad unexpectedly quit as prime minister, leaving the country in political turmoil.
Mahathir, however, agreed to a request by the Southeast Asian nation's king to stay on as interim premier until a successor is named.
The Singapore dollar strengthened 0.2%, while the Thai baht inched lower.
The Indonesian rupiah weakened 0.2% and was the worst performer, while the Indian rupee was flat.
Market participants will now shift their focus to India's economic growth data for the last quarter of 2019.
A Reuters poll shows growth in Asia's third-largest economy likely accelerated a touch in the October-December period, after its weakest expansion in more than six years in the previous quarter.
Philippine financial markets were closed for a holiday, but the peso was up 0.2% in offshore trade.
The South Korean won gained as much as 0.9% against the dollar, marking its best performance in more than two weeks.
This comes after the country reported a slowdown in new cases of coronavirus infections, and its finance minister on Monday said he had advised the government to start the review and execution of a supplementary budget to cushion the virus impact.
"Caution remains warranted as the Covid-19 development remains fluid," said Christopher Wong, senior FX strategist at Maybank Singapore.
The Bank of Korea is expected to lower its policy rate to a record low on Thursday, the third cut in the current easing cycle, a Reuters poll showed.