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EM stocks up 1%, FX up 0.1%

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Thailand's Anutin Charnvirakul elected PM by parliament

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26 nations vow to give Ukraine postwar security guarantees

By Pranav Kashyap and Twesha Dikshit

Sept 5 (Reuters) - Emerging market stocks headed for

weekly gains on Friday as investors doubled down on expectations

of U.S. Federal Reserve rate cuts, but currencies barely budged.

Thailand was in the spotlight as Anutin Charnvirakul was

elected prime minister, trouncing the candidate of the

Shinawatra family's once-dominant ruling party and ending a week

of chaos after the court ousted the previous leader.

The baht rose 0.3% to a more than one-month high and

the SET index gained nearly 1%, hovering near Thursday's

three-week peak.

"Thailand is one of the most politically volatile countries.

We're patient.. because it does create opportunities where

we're looking at out-of-favour companies and quite often you

find it due to situations like these," said Charles Sunnucks,

emerging markets fund manager at Oldfield Partners.

Turkey bucked the broader EM rally, with Istanbul stocks

on track for their worst week since mid-March - the

period when the arrest of opposition heavyweight Ekrem Imamoglu

ignited a selloff and forced the central bank to intervene.

Just as Turkish equities had been narrowing the gap with the

EM benchmark, fresh political shockwaves - detentions

this week of more opposition figures - stalled the bid and

knocked the rally off course.

The lira was headed for its ninth straight week of

declines.

The EM stocks gauge was up 1% on the day and on course for a

more than 1% weekly advance - on mounting wagers the Federal

Reserve will cut interest rates later this month.

However, EM currencies stayed stuck in tight ranges this

week, as cracks in the U.S. labour market and widening fiscal

deficits kept risk appetite in check. Safe-haven gold was

on track for its best week in three months.

A gauge for EM currencies flatlined this

week, but was up 0.1% on the day.

In central and eastern Europe, the Hungarian forint

was headed for its best week in more than seven months

helped by the central bank leaving its base rate on hold at the

European Union's joint-highest 6.5% level for the past 11 months

as inflation has rebounded.

Polish stocks rose 0.7%, with the energy index

jumping 2% after the country's energy minister said

power prices would be frozen at 500 zloty/MWH ($137.34) in the

fourth quarter.

Russia's rouble limped toward its worst week of 2025,

after the head of Russia's largest bank, Sberbank, said on

Thursday that the economy was stagnating and unless the central

bank slashed interest rates the country would fall into

recession.

Chinese stocks were poised to snap a

four-week winning streak, with the Shanghai index set

for its worst week since April as investors this week took

profits after a recent AI-driven rally.

The Indian rupee sank to a record low as continued

jitters over U.S. tariffs weighed on sentiment, but suspected

central bank intervention steadied the slide, traders said.

For TOP NEWS across emerging markets

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