* Indonesia central bank says they are ready to intervene
* Thai stocks rise as OPEC+ extends output cuts
* China sets above 6% growth target
March 5 (Reuters) - Indonesia's rupiah fell to a four-month
low 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 Chair Jerome Powell, who
reiterated that 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, while Seoul .KS11 was
down 0.6%.
"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. Stocks in China .SSEC eased off session lows and were down
0.3%, while the yuan CNY=CFXS was flat.
The Chinese government aimed to create more jobs in 2021
than it did last year. China's GDP expanded 2.3% last year, the only major economy
to see growth, 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 rose 3.50
basis points to 6.641%, while stocks .JKSE dipped 0.1%.
Indonesia has some of the highest-yielding debt in emerging
markets.
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. Stocks .PSI and the peso PHP= were flat.
HIGHLIGHTS:
** Malaysia's 3-year benchmark yield up 11.4 basis points at
2.157%
** Thai oil and gas producer PTT Pcl PTT.BK rose 2.5%
** 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 0344 GMT
COUNTRY FX RIC FX FX YTD INDEX STOCKS STOCKS
DAILY % % DAILY % YTD %
Japan JPY= +0.05 -4.34 .N225 -1.97 3.33
China CNY=CFXS -0.04 +0.85 .SSEC -0.36 0.51
India INR=IN +0.00 +0.32 .NSEI 0.00 7.86
Indonesia IDR= -0.28 -1.82 .JKSE -0.11 5.09
Malaysia MYR= -0.27 -1.13 .KLSE 0.19 -2.64
Philippines PHP= +0.02 -1.13 .PSI -0.01 -3.61
S.Korea KRW=KFTC -0.27 -3.72 .KS11 -0.62 5.26
Singapore SGD= -0.01 -1.23 .STI -0.23 5.77
Taiwan TWD=TP +1.33 +2.11 .TWII -0.19 7.76
Thailand THB=TH -0.23 -1.51 .SETI 0.48 6.35