*

Poland's unemployment rate at 5.3% in March

*

Thai central bank intervenes to ease baht volatility

*

Foreigners add net $32.7 bln to EM portfolios in March

-IIF

*

Stocks up 1.6%, FX adds 0.1%

By Bansari Mayur Kamdar

April 24 (Reuters) - Emerging market stocks rose on

Wednesday, extending their recovery for a third day, supported

by a more than 2% jump in the Hong Kong, South Korea and Taiwan

bourses, while Indonesia's rupiah strengthened after the central

bank raised interest rates unexpectedly.

The rupiah rose 0.4% against the dollar after Bank

Indonesia's surprise 25 bps hike, in efforts to support the

currency which has fallen to four-year lows on growing risk

aversion and a delay in the expected timing of any U.S. policy

easing.

"We reckon that today's hike will prove to be a

one-and-done, and continue to believe that BI will start a

gradual normalisation of policy in Q4, as soon as headline

inflation falls below its actual 2.5% target," said Miguel

Chanco, chief emerging Asia economist at Pantheon

Macroeconomics.

This followed Hungary's central bank saying there is "no need to

rush" with further rate cuts after lowering its base rate by 50

basis points on Tuesday to support the weakening forint

.

A strong dollar and worries about U.S. rates has put

pressure on emerging market currencies in the last few days,

with some analysts now expecting that this could slow down

monetary easing cycles for some in the region.

The Bank of Thailand has intervened in currency markets at times

to ease any excessive moves in the baht while the

current policy rate is robust and conducive to economic

recovery, central bank officials said.

On Wednesday, the MSCI index for emerging market currencies

edged 0.1% higher by 0835 GMT, but a firm dollar

continued to limit gains.

The Polish zloty slipped 0.1% against the euro.

Poland's registered unemployment rate fell to 5.3% in March

compared with 5.4% in February, data showed, in line with

analysts' expectations.

Emerging market stocks, meanwhile, jumped 1.6%,

with markets in Korea and Taiwan advancing more

than 2% each on a boost from technology stocks.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng index rose 2.2%, extending

gains for third straight session, while stocks in China also

tracked the rally in Asian peers.

Meanwhile, foreigners added about $32.7 billion to their

emerging market portfolios in March, a fifth consecutive month

of overall foreign net flows to EMs, the Institute of

International Finance said on Tuesday.

South Korea is considering easing real-time reporting

requirements for investors in the nation's $1.8 trillion bond

market as it seeks inclusion into FTSE Russell's global bond

index, three people familiar with the matter said.

A senior Chinese central bank official suggested on Tuesday that

the bank's buying and selling of treasury bonds in the secondary

market could be used for liquidity management and as a monetary

policy tool.

HIGHLIGHTS:

** Thailand's $13.5 bln household stimulus plan gets cabinet

approval

** Unemployment biggest worry in India, world's fastest growing

economy - Reuters poll

** China turns the heat up on cross-border investments in local

government debt, sources say

text_section_type="notes"For TOP NEWS across emerging markets

For CENTRAL EUROPE market report, see

For TURKISH market report, see

For RUSSIAN market report, see