* Indonesia cenbank says ready to intervene
* Thai stocks rise as OPEC+ extends output cuts
* China sets above 6% economic growth target
March 5 (Reuters) - Indonesia's rupiah was hovering around
four-month lows on Friday as rising U.S. bond yields sent the
dollar higher and hit appetite for Asia's emerging currency and
stock markets.
Stock markets in Asia suffered early falls following
overnight comments by Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell,
who reiterated the Fed's policy stance as appropriate, even
though he thought the recent bond sell-off was "notable".
By midday, Asian markets recovered some ground, with most
standing less than half a percent lower, and Chinese stocks
.SSEC gaining again.
"Any fallout has been limited in Asia thus far thanks to
China," said Jeffrey Halley, a senior market analyst for Asia
Pacific at OANDA.
China set a more than 6% growth target for 2021 at its
parliamentary meeting, having skipped a target last year due to
the pandemic. The Chinese government said it aimed to create more jobs in
2021 than it did last year. It was the only major economy to see
growth last year, at 2.3%, as it was the first to emerge from
the pandemic. Indonesia's central bank said it was ready to intervene in
the market to keep the weakening rupiah IDR= steady. The
currency was down 0.3% on Friday. Yields on Indonesian 10-year bonds ID10YT=RR were last at
6.609%, while stocks .JKSE edged 0.1% higher. Indonesia has
some of the highest-yielding debt in emerging markets.
Analysts at Maybank said if U.S. 10-year yields US10YT=RR
cross the 1.61% level hit last week, then sentiment in Asia,
particularly on the rupiah and South Korea's won KRW=KFTC ,
could be undermined further.
At last look, U.S. 10-year yields were up at 1.56%, slightly
below the recent 1.61% high.
In the Philippines, the central bank said a spike in
inflation to its fastest rate in 26 months was temporary,
suggesting it was not in a rush to reverse its accommodative
monetary policy stance. Manila stocks .PSI and the peso PHP= were flat.
Thai shares .SETI rose 0.7% as a surprise OPEC+ decision
to not increase oil supply in April boosted prices and supported
energy stocks on the index.
HIGHLIGHTS:
** Malaysia's 3-year benchmark yield up 11.4 basis points to
2.157%
** Thai oil and gas producer PTT Pcl PTT.BK rose around 2%
** Analysts at Barclays say inflation will now start to rank
higher on the priority list of central banks in emerging markets
Asia stock indexes and currencies at 0653 GMT
COUNTRY FX RIC FX FX INDEX STOCKS STOCKS
DAILY % YTD % DAILY % YTD %
Japan JPY= -0.26 -4.63 .N225 -0.23 5.17
China CNY=CFXS -0.07 +0.82 .SSEC 0.00 0.88
India INR=IN +0.08 +0.40 .NSEI -0.57 7.24
Indonesia IDR= -0.28 -1.82 .JKSE 0.06 5.27
Malaysia MYR= -0.34 -1.20 .KLSE 0.36 -2.48
Philippines PHP= +0.00 -1.15 .PSI -0.02 -3.62
S.Korea KRW=KFTC -0.09 -3.54 .KS11 -0.57 5.32
Singapore SGD= -0.03 -1.25 .STI 0.12 6.14
Taiwan TWD=TP +1.34 +2.12 .TWII -0.32 7.62
Thailand THB=TH -0.26 -1.54 .SETI 0.73 6.62