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Taiwan, S.Korea and Singapore equities near record levels

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MSCI EM Asia index gains for 6th day

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Most regional indexes set for best weekly gains in months

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Indonesia stocks up 1%, rupiah edges higher

By Sameer Manekar and Roushni Nair

Sept 12 (Reuters) - Equities in Asian emerging markets

traded around their record highs while currencies advanced

against the dollar on Friday as rising prospects of U.S. rate

cuts pushed investors towards high-yielding developing markets.

Equity benchmarks in Taiwan, South Korea,

and Singapore traded near their lifetime highs, while the

MSCI gauge tracking EM Asia stocks rose for the

sixth consecutive day to touch a fresh four-year peak.

Most regional indexes were headed for their strongest weekly

gains in months, with the MSCI gauge marking its best

performance on the week in about a year.

"Fed easing along with a weaker dollar bolsters the case for

EM central banks to expand monetary easing and further supports

our bull case for EM equities," JPMorgan analysts led by Rajiv

Batra, chief ASEAN equity strategist, said.

Markets continue to project a 100% chance of a Fed rate cut

next week, with some predicting an 8% probability of a more

aggressive half-point reduction. After a benign U.S. inflation

print on Thursday, traders ramped up the probability of two

further cuts this year to around 90%.

Indonesia's Jakarta Composite jumped more than 1% to

a four-session high, consolidating after the sudden departure of

the nation's reputed finance minister earlier in the week

triggered massive foreign outflows.

Top banks in Indonesia including Bank Central Asia

, Bank Rakyat, and Bank Mandiri

gained between 1% and 2% on the day, lifting the benchmark

index.

Tushar Mohata, an equity research analyst at Nomura,

suggests recent policy developments in support of boosting

liquidity could be easing investor concerns over banks' margins

after a prolonged period of "persistent selling pressure".

The rupiah also firmed to 16,390 a dollar, its

highest since Monday, while yields on Indonesian 10-year

government bonds slipped to a two-week low of

6.322%.

In Singapore, the FTSE Straits Times index slipped a

shade but remained only a few points shy of its all-time highs.

Stocks in Malaysia and Thailand edged higher.

Currencies were largely on the front foot: Taiwan's dollar

firmed to 30.229 per dollar, while the Thai baht

and Malaysian ringgit were a touch firmer.

The MSCI gauge of global EM currencies

briefly scaled a seven-week high, and was poised for its best

weekly gain since early August.

HIGHLIGHTS:

** Spread between Indonesia's 1- and 10-year bond yields

narrows to 114.4 basis points

** Evergrande liquidators get initial offers for control of

property services arm

** Malaysia reins in data centre growth, complicating

China's AI chip access

Asia stock indexes and currencies at 0401 GMT

COUNTRY FX RIC FX DAILY FX YTD INDEX STOCKS STOCKS

% % DAILY YTD %

%

Japan -0.18 +6.59 0.81 12.12

China India +0.07 -3.13 0.24 6.01

Indones +0.40 -1.83 1.02 10.55

ia

Malaysi +0.26 +6.18 0.28 -3.35

a

Philipp -0.05 +1.71 -0.11 -6.26

ines

S.Korea Singapo -0.09 +6.48 -0.25 14.71

re

Taiwan +0.38 +8.45 0.77 10.31

Thailan +0.22 +8.24 0.37 -7.67

d