April 25 (Reuters) - A look at the day ahead in Asian

markets.

The depreciation of Asian currencies against the U.S. dollar,

and the steps monetary authorities may take to prevent further

weakness, dominate the market landscape across Asia on Thursday

as the Bank of Japan gets its two-day policy meeting underway.

The regional economic data highlights include South Korea's

first quarter GDP, Malaysian consumer price inflation for March,

and the latest trade figures from Vietnam and Hong Kong.

After-the-bell earnings from U.S. tech giant Meta on

Wednesday could weigh on Asian markets - shares plunged 10% in

after-hours trade.

Sentiment is fragile: some stock markets have recovered

around half of their recent losses but Meta's slump throws a

cloud over that, while U.S. bond yields spiked following a weak

auction of five-year notes.

Unease around currencies is deepening after the dollar on

Wednesday smashed through 155.00 yen with no sign of Japanese

authorities to slow or reverse the yen's fall. Will Tokyo act?

An executive from Japan's ruling LDP told Reuters the party

is not yet in active discussion on what yen levels would be

deemed worth intervening in the market, but a continued slide

towards 160 or 170 to the dollar could trigger action.

It's hard to imagine the Ministry of Finance letting the

dollar go to 160 never mind 170 yen before intervening. Then

again, few would have imagined there would be no intervention at

155 yen either.

Will MOF instruct the BOJ to wade into the FX market and buy

yen just as the central bank starts its two-day policy meeting?

In the current climate, which prompted a rare three-way

joint statement on exchange rates from the United States, Japan

and South Korea this month, nothing can be ruled out.

In the realms of surprises, Indonesia's rate hike to counter

the weakness of the rupiah would have caught many market

participants off guard. The currency's subsequent 0.4% bounce

was modest, but was the biggest in seven weeks and enough to

pull it further from last week's four-year low.

There will be more than a few grumbles across Asia at

Tokyo's reluctance to anchor the yen, which is giving a huge

competitive boost to Japan - the yen is at a 31-year low against

China's yuan and close to multi-year lows against the currencies

of South Korea, Thailand, Vietnam and others.

India's central bank has intervened regularly recently to

support the rupee and Bank of Thailand officials said on

Wednesday the BOT intervened to ease excessive moves in the

baht.

U.S.-Sino relations took another twist after the U.S. Senate

voted in favor of legislation that would ban TikTok in the

United States if its Chinese owner ByteDance fails to divest the

popular short video app over the next nine months to a year.

Here are key developments that could provide more direction

to markets on Thursday:

- Bank of Japan begins policy meeting

- South Korea GDP (Q1)

- Malaysia inflation (March)