March 14 (Reuters) - A look at the day ahead in Asian

markets.

A day of consolidation and narrow range-trading across world

stocks on Wednesday gives Asian markets no clear direction on

Thursday, allowing investors to gear up for next week's

potentially seismic Bank of Japan policy meeting.

The main event in Asia's economic calendar on Thursday is the

release of Indian wholesale price inflation. This comes a day

after figures showed annual consumer inflation was marginally

hotter than expected in February, although industrial production

fell short of expectations.

Inflationary pressures, as measured by wholesale prices,

remain muted. The last time annual wholesale price inflation was

above 1% was almost a year ago, and prices were declining

outright between April and October last year.

Economists polled by Reuters expect annual WPI inflation to

inch lower to 0.25%.

Developments in Tokyo, meanwhile, suggest momentum is

building toward the BOJ raising interest rates next Wednesday.

This would end negative interest rate policy that has been in

place for eight years, and would be the first rate hike in 14

years.

Sources have told Reuters that the BOJ will debate raising

rates if a preliminary survey on Friday on big firms' wage

talks, to be released by union umbrella Rengo, is positive.

Sustainable wage growth is seen as a key plank of ensuring

Japan's decades-long battle with deflation is over.

On Wednesday, car giant Toyota Motor agreed to give factory

workers their biggest pay increase in 25 years, heightening

expectations that bumper pay raises will be matched elsewhere,

giving the BOJ the green light to move.

A head of steam appears to be building. Representatives of

government, labor and management held a tripartite meeting on

Wednesday to push wage hikes across the country, and according

to union sources, progress was made.

Japanese stocks fell a mild 0.26% on Wednesday as the

profit-taking from last week's record high continued. It was the

fourth decline out of the last five sessions, suggesting traders

may also be bracing for a BOJ move.

The two-year JGB yield edged back above 0.20%, although the

yen hardly moved.

Meanwhile, fraught U.S.-Sino relations over trade, tech and

spying took another twist on Wednesday after U.S. House of

Representatives passed a bill that would give TikTok's Chinese

owner ByteDance about six months to divest the U.S. assets of

the short-video app, or face a ban.

U.S. President Joe Biden said he wants the Senate to take

give swift approval.

The measure is the latest in a series of moves in Washington to

respond to U.S. national security concerns about China, from

connected vehicles to advanced artificial intelligence chips to

cranes at U.S. ports.

Elsewhere in Asia on Thursday, investors also await retail

sales data from Indonesia, and industrial production and

producer prices from Hong Kong.

Here are key developments that could provide more direction

to markets on Thursday:

- India wholesale price inflation (February)

- Indonesia retail sales (February)

- Hong Kong producer price inflation (February)