(Reuters) - The rupee led the declines among emerging Asian currencies on Thursday after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke confirmed market views that the U.S. central bank expects to start tapering monetary stimulus this year. The rupee fell as investors looked to a planned open market operation sale of 120 billion rupees from the central bank later in the day, in what is a key plank in its efforts to drain liquidity from the financial system to support the currency. Leveraged funds and U.S. investors sold the Singapore dollar. The South Korean won and the Indonesian rupiah slid on dollar demand from local companies. Bernanke on Wednesday said the Fed still expects to start scaling back its monthly bond-buying of $85 billion a month later this year although he left open the option of changing that plan if the economic outlook shifted.

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