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Mexico, Hungary, Czech, Sri Lanka rate verdicts due this

week

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China stocks up for 4th day amid stimulus hopes

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China 30-year treasury yield hits record low

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South African rand hits 20-month high

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EM stocks hit 10-week high, up 0.2%; FX slips 0.2%

By Ankika Biswas

Sept 23 (Reuters) - Emerging market assets were largely

muted on Monday after recent gains, with a slew of EM policy

decisions and a U.S. inflation print dominating investors'

weekly watch list, while Sri Lanka's dollar bonds slid after

electing a Marxist-leaning president.

After the Federal Reserve's 50-basis-point interest rate cut

deepened a rush into risky assets last week, investors are on

the lookout for crucial inflation and other U.S. data for clues

on the outlook for the economy as the central bank also

projected further policy easing by the year's end.

The MSCI index for EM stocks touched a near

10-week high in early trade, before paring much of the gains. On

Friday, it had logged its biggest weekly gain since Aug. 12,

riding on the U.S. rate cut glee.

The currencies gauge, which has been trading

at record-high levels, weakened slightly on the day after

logging its eighth straight weekly advance.

While multiple EM central banks have already embarked on

their own policy easing journey way ahead of the Fed, investors

will closely monitor the progress on their upcoming policy

actions. Brazil, Latin America's largest nation, in particular

had delivered a 25 bps rate hike last week as inflation remains

a challenge.

For the week, Mexico, Hungary, Czech Republic and Sri Lanka

are among the major EMs scheduled to release their own interest

rates decisions.

The Hungarian forint dipped 0.3% against the euro,

while the Czech crown was flat, with both countries

expected to deliver 25 bps cuts each over the next two days.

Meanwhile, Sri Lanka's international bonds tumbled around 3

cents on concerns that an election win by Marxist-leaning Anura

Kumara Dissanayake could see him revisit the terms of the

country's International Monetary Fund bailout and debt rework.

The short-dated bond with a 2025 maturity

dropped 2.4 cents to be bid at 50.24 cents, Tradeweb data

showed.

"While NPP (National Peoples Power) aims to stick with the

IMF program, the path ahead is still uncertain," Citi economists

noted.

China stocks rose for the fourth session,

with the country's 30-year treasury yield hitting a

record low amid heightened expectations that Beijing will unveil

fresh economic stimulus. Hong Kong shares hit a

three-month high, before closing slightly lower.

Most major stock markets in the Gulf rose in early trade,

extending a rally sparked by regional rate cuts, although the

gains were limited by ongoing geopolitical tensions.

Among others, South Africa's rand hit a fresh

20-month high against the greenback.