News

March 28 (Reuters) - Emerging Asian currencies struggled for momentum on Thursday and most stock markets fell as investors chose to book profits ahead of a long holiday weekend, while the U.S. dollar firmed after hawkish comments from a Federal Reserve official.

The South Korean won KRW=KFTC advanced 0.2%, a day after sliding to its lowest level since November. The Indonesian rupiah IDR= was last down 0.1%, remaining at its lowest level in nearly five months.

The U.S. dollar index .DXY, which measures the strength of the greenback against six major rivals, ticked up after Fed Governor Christopher Waller signalled there was no rush to cut the policy rate because of the unexpectedly strong inflation data this year. It was last up 0.1% at 104.490.

Japan's yen JPY= was little changed. The currency's brief slide on Wednesday to a 34-year low near 152 per dollar triggered an emergency meeting of Japan's three main monetary authorities to prevent further declines.

In China, authorities are trying to mitigate the fallout of the yen's weakness on the yuan CNY=CFXS, which hit a four-month low last week. The yuan was little changed at 7.2274 on Thursday.

"Asian currencies continue to take cues from moves in RMB, JPY and USD. To some extent, there is still lingering uncertainty on RMB and growing bias that there may be more weakening in JPY, given expectations for a slow and steady pace of BOJ policy normalisation (intervention risks aside)," said Christopher Wong, FX strategist at OCBC..

"Taken together, alongside the Fed in no hurry to cut, Asia FX may stay under pressure in the interim."

In equity markets, Singapore's main share index .STI, which is among the worst performers in the region so far this year, lost 0.7%, reversing some of the previous session's gains.

Thai stocks .SETI dipped 0.2% after two days of gains, as the industry ministry said the Southeast Asian country's manufacturing output fell for the 17th straight month in February.

Elsewhere, Indian shares .NSEI surged as much as 1.1% to a two-week high. Stocks in Indonesia .JKSE, South Korea .KS11 and Taiwan .TWII fell between 0.3% and 0.5%.

Markets in Malaysia and the Philippines were closed for public holidays. Markets in India, Indonesia, Singapore and the Philippines will be closed on Friday.

Next week, market focus will be on the Reserve Bank of India's policy decision, China's PMI data, and inflation data from South Korea, the Philippines and Thailand.

HIGHLIGHTS:

** Japan repeats verbal warning against yen bears, BOJ keeps dovish tone

** South Korea aims to be added to World Government Bond Index this year

** Brazil may bump up 2024 economic growth forecast, finance minister says

Asia stock indexes and currencies at 0658 GMT

COUNTRY

FX RIC

FX DAILY %

FX YTD %

INDEX

STOCKS DAILY %

STOCKS YTD %

Indonesia

IDR=

MYR=

.KLSE

-

Philippines

PHP=

-

.PSI

-

S.Korea

KRW=KFTC

SGD=

.STI

THB=TH

.SETI

Asian stock markets https://tmsnrt.rs/2zpUAr4

(Reporting by Poonam Behura in Bengaluru; Editing by Jamie Freed and Subhranshu Sahu)

((Poonam.Behura@thomsonreuters.com))

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